Kiln's 'ancestor' found in Greece
The structures bridge the gap between kilns and stone hearths
Archaeologists have discovered the oldest clay
"fireplaces" made by humans at a dig in southern
Greece.
The hearths are between 34,000 and 23,000 years old and were
almost certainly used for cooking by prehistoric inhabitants of the
area.
Researchers found remnants of wood ash and phytoliths - a type
of plant cell - in these hearths and lab tests show the clay was
burnt.
The study appears in the latest edition of the scholarly journal
Antiquity.
The discovery helps to bridge the gap between the stone hearths
built by earlier people and the clay kilns known to have been
used 28,000-26,000 years ago at the site of Dolni Vestonice in
the Czech Republic.
The clay hearths were excavated by a European-Israeli team at
Klisoura Cave 1 located in a gorge in the north-western
Peloponnese.
Animal bones
Over 70 hearths built using clay were unearthed in ground layers
associated with a prehistoric culture known as the Aurignacian.
Analysis reveals that the hearths were fired to between 400C and
600C.
The people who made the hearths probably brought clay from
the floodplain in front of Klisoura cave and, after wetting it,
puddled and shaped it in place.
The hearths are made of clay brought from a river floodplain
At Dolni Vestonice, archaeologists have found evidence of
prehistoric hunter-gatherers using kilns to fire clay figurines.
The researchers also found burnt animal bones associated with
the clay structures, which include the remains of fallow deer,
hare, rock partridge and great bustard.
They also found burnt seeds from edible plants such as
goosefoot and the fruit of knotgrass, although it was not possible
to tell if these were deliberately cooked or if they were burnt in
natural fires.
Until now, there had been precious little evidence of the
transition from the stone hearths in the Middle Palaeolithic to the
advanced technology used in Central Europe by 28,000 years
ago.