Catch me if you can: Identifying pyrite residues on flint strike-a-lights with the use of SEM-EDS analysis on the example of ancient materials from the northern coast of the Black Sea

Abstract

Fire making can be considered one of the most important skills acquired by humans in ancient times. The conducted analyses indicate that this community knew several methods of striking fire. One of them consisted of using an iron firesteel and flint. Another required hitting a piece of flint or quartzite against a pyrite or marcasite concretion. Materials from the northern coast of the Black Sea, especially those from the Crimea, provide us with ample evidence for using both techniques by the societies inhabiting this area from the 2nd to the 4th c. AD. They include iron firesteels and flint fragments discovered in graves. Other raw materials that were elements of fire making sets usually did not preserve. This article presents the results of analyses aiming to detect pyrite or marcasite remains, which might have been elements of such sets.