LAUSR

Although research relating to Paleolithic fire use has a long history, it has seen a particular resurgence in the last decade. This has been fueled in part by improved analytical techniques, improved standards of data collection and reporting, and the discovery of new sites with important fire residues in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. A major component of this new research has been to identify when “controlled use” and “habitual use” of fire developed among Pleistocene hominins. However, an important starting point of this discussion is defining what is meant by “controlled use” and “habitual use,” as these terms have come to be used in undefined, inconsistent ways in the literature. We also need to lay out clearly how these behaviors might be recognized in the archaeological record and come to some understanding of what the potential implications of the development of these technologies and their geographic and climatic contexts are for the course of hominin evolution.