Abstract
The development of socioeconomic approaches applied to charcoal analysis has made it possible to focus on topics related to firewood use and management. Ethnographic studies remind us that the criteria according to which a society chooses its firewood cannot be reduced to a “simple” taxonomic selection: other characteristics, such as the diameter or the state of the wood ( i.e. green, seasoned, rotten) are at least as important as the species. The framework of this paper is to present a synthesis of recent tools developed to improve the potential of charcoal analysis for the study of firewood uses and management. Standardized laboratory experiments on Scot Pine ( Pinus sylvestris ) combining both muffle furnace and open fireplace combustions allowed proposing new methods of identifying the diameter and the state of the wood based on anatomical signatures. Thanks to these methods, it becomes possible to contribute to a better knowledge of the technical traditions linked to the use of fire, from wood gathering to specialized hearths on archaeological charcoal samples.
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