On the origin of Mesolithic charcoal-rich pits: A comment on Huisman et al
2020
Crombé, Philippe | Langohr, Roger
Small, bowl-shaped pits characterized by a lower fill rich in charred organic material are among the most frequent features found on Mesolithic sites in the sand belt of NW Europe, in particular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Traditionally they are interpreted as “pit hearths” used for food processing and/or tar production. However, in 2015 the present authors suggested an alternative explanation according to which these features represent ant nests which collapsed after burning caused by forest (wild)fires. In a recent paper Huisman et al. (2019) present new micromorphological data which they believe supports the anthropogenic character of these features. Mesolithic man would have put top soil turves on the pit floors before igniting the hearth; after the firing the pits would have been deliberately filled with topsoil material. The current paper challenges these interpretations and concludes that the micromorphological data better fit the ant nest hypothesis.
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