Abstract
Among the lamps of the site of " La Garenne ", four are of great dimensions and two of them in particular bear astoundingly fresh marks of use. As a supplement to the research carried out by different experimenters, we tried to find a rapid means of lighting these great lamps, followed by attempts to reproduce the characteristic traces of their use. The first series of experiments, using lichen wicks, failed to produce any traces of soot or of heat reddening of the "bowl ". However, it did allow the accidental discovery of two hitherto unknown types of wick: glowing wooden coals and spongy bones. These allowed a very rapid ignition and produced big flames. These big lamps, equipped with such rigid wicks, gave out much more light than a candle and left traces of use comparable to those observed on the Palaeolithic lamps. The radiated heat was such that they could well have served as an ad hoc heater to compensate any possible lack of plant-based fuels.
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