The total weight of curated blocs from the site is approximately 0.75 kg.
1) were uncovered from a Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition layer that was excavated by Bordes in 1954––71 and more recently by Soressi in 2004–5 26.
In exploring the potential uses, we have studied the Neanderthal site of Pech-de-l’Azé I where several hundred small black blocs ( Fig. An explanation of such investments should take into consideration either the possibility of special colouring properties or the chemical properties of manganese oxides, including their oxidising and catalytic properties. In contrast to these fire residues, manganese oxides would have had to have been sourced and transported, at considerably higher costs. The use of such carbon-rich materials for body decoration is documented in the ethnographic literature 15. Neanderthals habitually used fire 25 and if they needed a black material for body decoration, carbon-rich materials such as soot and charcoal were readily available. Indeed, both carbon-rich materials and black manganese ores were used in the production of Upper Palaeolithic cave art 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. Thus far, researchers have focused exclusively on the colour properties of manganese oxides, however, decorative use might imply that any black material soft enough to mark and resilient enough for the mark to remain could have been used. In stark contrast with the wide variety of uses documented for iron oxides, the archaeological and ethnographic records contain very limited evidence for the use of manganese oxides 15, 16, all associated with decoration. Ethnographic data 9, 10, 11 as well as other evidence 12, 13 underline the limitations of exclusive interpretations as pigments and/or their use as symbolic mediators whilst Neanderthal use of ochre more than 200,000 years ago 14 shows that the manipulation of these materials has a significant time depth in the Middle Palaeolithic. It has been argued that in African Middle Stone Age contexts, ochres were used as a cosmetic pigment in female reproductive strategies 8 but in extending the hypothesis to the European late Middle Palaeolithic sites, the presence of black “manganese” was interpreted as a Neanderthal female aversion to using the colour red during glacial cycles when, it is argued, pair-bond stability would have been critical 8. 1 and Supplementary Information 1) and the usual interpretation is that these are manganese oxides collected for their colouring properties, perhaps for body decoration and potentially for social communication and symbolic expression 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Several Mousterian and Châtelperronian sites in France have yielded large numbers of small black blocs ( Fig. More than forty Middle Palaeolithic sites in Europe have yielded coloured mineral materials, the majority dating to the end of the Middle Palaeolithic, between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago 3. Whether the Neanderthal archaeological record testifies to the kind of symbolic behaviours that are considered typical for ‘modern’ humans is a highly debated topic within palaeoanthropology, with the use of coloured materials such as ochres and manganese oxides one of the possible indicators of such behaviours 1, 2. With archaeological evidence for fire places and the conversion of the manganese dioxide to powder, we argue that Neanderthals at Pech-de-l’Azé I used manganese dioxide in fire-making and produced fire on demand. Combustion experiments and thermo-gravimetric measurements demonstrate that manganese dioxide reduces wood’s auto-ignition temperature and substantially increases the rate of char combustion, leading us to conclude that the most beneficial use for manganese dioxide was in fire-making. Compositional analyses lead us to infer that late Neanderthals at Pech-de-l’Azé I were deliberately selecting manganese dioxide. Neanderthals habitually used fire and if they needed black material for decoration, soot and charcoal were readily available, whereas obtaining manganese oxides would have incurred considerably higher costs. The usual interpretation is that these ‘manganese oxides’ were collected for their colouring properties and used in body decoration, potentially for symbolic expression. Several Mousterian sites in France have yielded large numbers of small black blocs.
0 kommentar(er)
