• DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-68839-w
• Corpus ID: 220656366

Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)

@article{Sanz2020EarlyEO,
  title={Early evidence of fire in south-western Europe: the Acheulean site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal)},
  author={Montserrat Sanz and Joan Daura and Dan Cabanes and Natalia {\'E}g{\"u}ez and {\'A}ngel Carrancho and Ernestina Badal and P. Souto and Filipa Rodrigues and Jo{\~a}o Zilh{\~a}o},
  journal={Scientific Reports},
  year={2020},
  volume={10}
}

• M. Sanz, J. Daura, +6 authors J. Zilhão
• Published 21 July 2020
• Environmental Science
• Scientific Reports

The site of Gruta da Aroeira (Torres Novas, Portugal), with evidence of human occupancy dating to ca. 400 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11), is one of the very few Middle Pleistocene localities to have provided a fossil hominin cranium associated with Acheulean bifaces in a cave context. The multi-analytic study reported here of the by-products of burning recorded in layer X suggests the presence of anthropogenic fires at the site, among the oldest such evidence in south-western Europe. The burnt material consists of bone, charcoal and, possibly, quartzite cobbles. These finds were made in a small area of the cave and in two separate occupation horizons. Our results add to our still-limited knowledge about the controlled use of fire in the Lower Palaeolithic and contribute to ongoing debates on the behavioural complexity of the Acheulean of Europe.