The earliest evidence of hearths in Southern Europe: The case of Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

Most researchers agree about the importance of the fire during the Pleistocene. The controlled use of fire could allow advances in the ways of life, not only for its value as a constant source of light and heat, but also because it contributed to the processing of food, to warding off the carnivores, and especially, to human socialization, as fire can be understood as a focus of concentration of activities and structuring of inhabited space. Apart from the many utilities that the hearths may have had during the Pleistocene, this research does not allow specification of the chronological and geographical context of the first controlled use of fire. From this perspective, the present study contributes to this discussion with the data from Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain). This site contains a sedimentary deposit composed of seventeen stratigraphical levels ranging from MIS 9 to MIS 5e (c. 350–100 ky). The stratigraphical series presents clear evidence of the controlled and reiterative use of fire. The used analytic techniques have confirmed the presence of hearths at levels II, IV, XI and XIII of the site. This paper discusses the hearths from level XIII, chronologically located in MIS 7c with an amino-acid racemization (AAR) date of 228 ± 53 ky. These combustion structures are the most ancient known today not only at Bolomor Cave and in Spain, but also in Southern Europe. From this perspective, the aim of this study is to make known the hearths from Level XIII of Bolomor Cave and to provide data that contribute to the general debate about the presence, knowledge and use of fire in the European Middle Pleistocene.