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Abstract
While the use of fire is widely acknowledged as one of humanity’s most important discoveries, scientific knowledge of when fire entered our behavioral repertoire is a subject of debate primarily centering on what constitutes clear evidence of human control. Another consideration is preservation bias, in that remains on open-air sites may be disturbed by diagenetic processes. Linked to this second point is the relative lack of clear evidence of anthropogenic fire on many sites dating from 2 million years ago (mya) to 1mya—sites often associated with Homo erectus. The derived attributes of H. erectus – increased stature combined with larger brain, smaller teeth and shorter gut – appear to indicate an improved diet with enhanced energetic returns, possibly linked to cooking. Alternatively, clear evidence of human associated fire—e.g. hearths in direct association with knapped lithics—has been argued as not significant until much later, ca. 400-300 thousand years ago (kya). Unlike stone, much of the material used in the production of tools is easily biodegradable, therefore very little of the broader technological culture of early humans is known. This dissertation presents work conducted to utilize a well-preserving and widespread set of artifacts – e.g., stone tools and debitage – to investigate the nature of the human-fire relationship. Experimental, geoarchaeological and excavation data are used to test 1) whether lithics can inform the presence of anthropogenic fire on a site, and 2) whether lithic artifacts associated with H. erectus exhibit such heat-altered characteristics. Experimental work investigated whether color and/or fragmentation of stone may indicate the exposure of knapped stone tools to human fire, as suggested by temperature and duration (or “total heat-energy”). Assessment of these experimental lithics using petrographic thin sections further clarified the nature of thermal alteration of tool stone, providing characteristics whose presence suggests the association of knapped stone tools and human-controlled fire. Excavation data is from a new site, FxJj20Main-Extension-0, in Koobi Fora, Kenya, whose Developed Oldowan artifacts are attributed to H. erectus. The FxJj20 sites complex, dated to 1.6Mya, have been argued to present potential evidence of hominin control of fire in the Early Pleistocene.