Bronze Age combustion structures of Italian contexts in comparison: Via Ordiere-Solarolo (Ravenna) and Mursia (Pantelleria island). Archaeological, geoarchaeological and experimental data

Abstract

Recent investigations carried out by the University of Bologna at the Bronze Age sites of Via Ordiere (Solarolo – Ravenna province) and Mursia (Pantelleria) discovered several types of fire installations. The paper considers different steps of the research related to the use of fire and cooking practices in domestic contexts using the two settlements for a comparative approach. While in the first case the evidence of firing structures is poorly preserved and requires sampling for micromorphological analysis and complex analysis, the second case of Mursia, thanks to the best preservation of the archaeological deposit, allows to select and reconstruct more easily the features involved in processing and cooking food.Besides the presentation of the archaeological evidence, the research copes with the methods applied for a combination of results, including an archaeological protocol for documenting fire installations and the geoarchaeological analysis, extended to the comparison with similar features in the literature and with the ethnoarchaeological evidence. A further approach was scheduled experimenting archaeological replica of most common fire installations. Finally, we deal a general understanding of the use of fire with a concept map going in depth with the many questions arisen pointing out the interrelationships among several parts of the process involving fire installations.