Is Choice Acceptable? How the Anthracological Paradigm May Hinder the Consideration of Fuel Gathering as a Cultural Behaviour

Charcoal analysis is a powerful and well-established means of documenting past environments and the impact of ancient societies on vegetation. Nowadays, the palaeoecological accuracy of anthracological spectra built from scattered charcoal derived from long-term use of domestic fuel is widely acknowledged. This broadly accepted paradigm relies on the hypothesis that firewood gathering is done following the Least Effort Principle, in areas frequented for routine activities, and may include any species encountered therein. Nevertheless, ethnographic studies, despite the fact that they often underline the opportunistic aspects of wood gathering, always reveal that choice comes into play at some stage of the process. Moreover, most anthracologists think in terms of 'fuel management', admitting that firewood gathering is subject to technical, economic and cultural prescriptions. For historical times and specialised activities, we easily accept that fuel may be chosen according to various properties, including species. However, we still deny that prehistoric societies potentially preferred or rejected certain wood species for feeding their domestic fires. Through concrete ethnographic and archaeobotanical examples and a case-study, this paper aims to question our capacity to consider that fuel procurement could be affected by cultural traits, to identify the behaviours that could make the charcoal record differ from the vegetation and, finally, to consider charcoal assemblages from an anthropological angle.

Automated summary

Charcoal analysis is a powerful method for documenting past environments and societal impact on vegetation. While widely accepted, there is still debate on whether prehistoric societies had preferences for specific wood species.