Woodland vegetation and fuel exploitation at the prehistoric campsite of Pınarbaşı, south-central Anatolia, Turkey: the evidence from the wood charcoal macro-remains

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the analysis of wood charcoal macro-remains from the multi-period prehistoric rock shelters of Pınarbaşı in the Konya plain, south-central Anatolia. Retrieval and analytical methods are also reported in detail, together with some methodologies previously untested in the field of charcoal analysis aiming at the quantitative description of context-related variation in the preservation status of archaeological wood charcoal assemblages. The patterns observed in the charcoal record are interpreted as a reflection of the prehistoric strategies for firewood exploitation in their local and regional palaeoenvironmental context.