Aranguren et al., 2018 (neanderthal fire technology)

Question 1

Where and how were the wooden tools found?

Answer 1

In Tuscany, Italy, during excavations for the construction of thermal pools

58 wooden artefacts found

Question 2

The wooden artefacts were present with … … and fossil bones belonging to the …-… …

Answer 2

stone tools, straight-tusked, elephant

Question 3

The site was … dated back to ~… years ago, when early … were present

Answer 3

radiometrically, 171,000, neanderthals

Question 4

The wooden stick tools were made from boxwood, and over … long, … at one end and … at the other.

Answer 4

1m, rounded, pointed

Question 5

They had all been partially …, possibly to lessen the labour of scraping boxwood, showing that the neanderthals used … … in tool manufacture (from very tough wood).

Answer 5

charred, fire technology

Question 6

Due to the low resistance decay of wood…

Answer 6

prehistoric wooden tools are very rarely found

Question 7

The wooden artefacts are suggested to have been … tools, rather than …, like many of the wooden artefacts found in other sites have been.

Answer 7

multipurpose, weapons

Question 8

Since wood is rarely preserved, it may be the case that we are missing a significant proportion of the history of tool use

Answer 8

just a thought

Question 9

The fossil mammals and plants from this area and time period are suggestive of…

Answer 9

large open grasslands, with areas of wetland and lakes

Question 10

Charring thought to remove small…

Answer 10

attached branches for a smooth, more handleable tool

and makes outer wood weaker and easier to chip and manufacture using stones

Allows easier, more energy-efficient manufacture of very hard wood, useful for digging, gathering plants, grinding (as a pestle) and also fro hunting small game such as burrowing animals

Experimental tests confirmed that fire is needed to work boxwood

Question 11

The action of fire of natural origin can be ruled out as….

Answer 11

traces of combustion are present in some tools and not on others, even if those tools are found so close that they are touching. There was also no evidence of combustion on the sediment or faunal remains. Plus the charring was most commonly found only along the shaft but not the ends (tips and handles), where it had been worked off.

Question 12

This find is the earliest evidence of … in the fabrication of wooden tools

Answer 12

pyrotechnology

• significant insight into the behaviour and abilities of early neanderthals towards human modernity