Dear all,
At the moment I am working with charcoal from a very old salt spring
exploitation in Roumania (6th millennium BC). This is not a waterlogged site:
people took salt water from a well and evaporated the water in order to have
salt which was used for food or animals. The site, located near the well, is
composed by a succession of fireplaces (see photo). Each fireplace is composed
a layer of burnt silt, a layer of black silt containing sometimes small
charcoal fragments and a layer of ashes (see photo). We don’t know the size of
each fireplace because the site was excavated only along the stratigraphy and
we don’t know the technique used to evaporate the salt.
My problem is the following: all the charcoal fragments are very altered. The
most often, this is impossible to observe the different planes of the wood
because charcoals become like powder. This is like if it was a nodule (small
ball) of black silt. Sometimes, I have stronger fragment but it is possible to
break them only along the longitudinal plane. I could not see specific features
such as mineralization… and if I break it along the transversal plane, I have
no more fragment in my hand! Consequently, the identification is not possible.
I think this alteration is partially due to the post-deposit sedimentation
which was very slow but I wonder if the technique used (to evaporate the salt)
can also be at the origin of a such alteration. Th last thing : I have ever
work in such context of salt spring and I never met this problem;
I would like to know if someone had ever met such problem (also with charred
seeds) and what phenomena was at the origin ? If you know interesting papers
about taphonomy in particular archaeological context, can I you send me somes
references?
Thank you very much for you help,
Alexa Dufraisse
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Alexa Dufraisse
Universität Basel
IPNA, Institut für Prähistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie
Spalenring 145
CH-4055 Basel
Tel +41 61 201 02 17
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