Traces Of Fire Research Articles

Research of Trace Analysis and Investigation Method for Refrigerator-caused Fire

Abstract Investigation of refrigerator-caused fires is a very comprehensive work. The investigator must master its working principles and structural characteristics in order to identify the cause of the fire, and to provide guidance for fire scene sampling, so an analysis of the probable fire-causes should be introduced. This paper analyzes the working principles, structural characteristics and probable fire-causes of household refrigerators, and summarizes the general principles, methods and procedures in an investigation of refrigerator-caused fire combining with a detailed analysis of survey operation upon a fire case. The sampling and analysis of the melted mark consider the distribution of the surrounding flammable objects, spread traces of fire, melted mark appearance and microstructure characteristics, poor heat dissipation and smoldering temperature field of insulation layer on the internal structure of the melted mark.

Birch Carbonization Surface Micrograph and Element Analyses

There are close relationships between the surface micrograph and element contents of birch and its heating-up temperature. By using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), the surface micrograph and element contents of birch carbonizations prepared in the simulating fires with different heating-up temperatures were observed and compared. The results show that as the heating-up temperature rises, the surfaces of tracheids gradually become smoother, and the cross sections of tracheids change from circular or ovate shape to polygon. The external films of tracheid fibers are damaged and bordered pits are exposed gradually with the increasing of heating-up temperature. At high temperature, bordered pits change from flat eye-like pores to circular pits, at the same time, the carbon content increases from 52.46% to 90.96%, and the oxygen content decreases from 47.34% to 8.31%, while the potassium and calcium content increase. Thus, the study of connecting wood surface micrographs and element contents with heating-up temperature is useful in fire trace and evidence identification, and the result is meaningful to fire investigation.

Study in Plug-Socket Loose Contact Tests and Fire Trace Identification Technology Thereof

Simulation tests of two failure patterns, including reduction of static contact area and contact vibration of plug and socket, are carried out in this research. Based on simulation tests, fire traces caused by loose contact are extracted and investigated by using some technical approaches including macroscopic analysis, SEM analysis, surface component analysis, metallographic analysis and so on. Finally, the technical approaches and criterion for identifying fire traces caused by loose contact of plug and socket are proposed.

Susceptibility of pine stands to bark stripping by chacma baboons Papio ursinus in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the susceptibility, intensity and distribution of pine trees to bark stripping by chacma baboons Papio ursinus in three plantations in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. The number of plots/ha, stripped trees/plot and stripped trees/ha was recorded during the pre-rainy, rainy and post-rainy seasons from August 2006 to May 2007. During data collection, altitude, aspect, season and other site predictor variables (e.g., roads and fire traces, water points, indigenous vegetation conservation areas, crop fields, human settlements, wattle scrubs, rocky areas, open grasslands, earlier stripped sites and roost sites) were recorded for each plot in association with selected predictor variables within plantation estates. Data on the number of stripped plots/ha, stripped trees/plot and stripped trees/ha were analysed as dependent variables using the Generalised linear Model (GLM) through SPSS version 15 (2006) to determine which predictor variables were significantly related to bark stripping. Differences between means were tested using Bonferroni tests with a 5% level of significance. Our findings show that bark stripping of pine trees by baboons occurred at all altitudes and aspects. Overall, the number of bark stripped trees/ha did not significantly vary by season. The number of bark stripped plots/ha was lower during the pre-rainy season than the rainy season, whereas the number of bark stripped trees/plot was higher during the pre-rainy than the rainy season. Bark stripping of pines occurred more often in the vicinities of areas with abundant food and water.

Obred spaljivanja pokojnika u prapovijesti sjeverne Dalmacije

In the northern Dalmatia region where there were only two cultural systems throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, four moments are crucial in the use of cremation ritual during the 2nd/1st centuries BC: in the Early Bronze Age (Cetina culture: Ervenik, Podvršje − Matakov brig, Nadin, Krneza − Duševića glavica), in the Early Iron Age (Nadin, mound 13, Krneza − Jokina glavica), in Hellenism (Dragišić, gr. 4 A-C), and finally, for the first time very intensively during the Romanization of Liburnians. Newly discovered cremations in ceramic urns (gr. 3, 13) in burial mound 13 (9th – 6th cent. BC) from Nadin near Benkovac are the first example (after Dragišić) of Liburnian cremation; more precisely, burial mound 13 with 19 graves represents a form of biritualism in the Liburnians. It is also an example of the greatest number of Liburnian burials under a mound, with crouched, extended and cremated skeletons and many ritual remains (traces of fire on the ground and on animal bones: funerary feast?; numerous remains of ceramic vessels (libation?). Although typical Liburnian burial "inherits" many formal and symbolic elements (stone cist, enclosing wall, libation, etc.) from the (Early) Bronze Age (and probably Eneolithic as well), cremation in the Liburnian burial mound 13 from Nadin cannot be explained in terms of continuity from the Early Bronze Age; links are missing, particularly those from the Middle Bronze Age in the study of the cultural dynamics of the 2nd millennium BC in the northern Dalmatia region. Squat form of the Nadin urns with a distinct neck has analogies in the Liburnian (Nin) and Daunian funerary pots for burying newborns (ad encytrismos), and also in the typology of pottery (undecorated or decorated) in a wider region (Ruše, V.Gorica, Dalj/Vukovar, Terni II, Este, Bologna I-II, Roma II, Cumae I, Pontecagnano IA, Histrians, etc.), i.e. in the forms widespread from the Danubian region, Alps, and Balkans to the Apennine Peninsula between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages (10th/9th – 8th cent. BC). Although appearance of cremation in the Picenian culture has not been completely clear (Fermo necropolis, burials from Ancona, Numana, Novilara: graves Servici, 29, 39 from Piceno II-III, from the 8th/7th.cent. BC), Liburnian culture is most similar to the Picenian culture in the Adriatic world by the intensity and period of cremation, and form of urns. Specifically, decorated urn in a male grave 52 from Numana from the 9th century BC is analogous to the Nadin urns. This grave from Numana is usually mentioned as an example of trans-Adriatic, Picenian-Liburnian (Balkanic) i.e. Picenian-Histrian relations. Liburnian urns are similar to the urn from the grave in Numana, 495, Davanzali, from the late 9th century by their profilation. "Genesis" of both Liburnian and Picenian cremation is unknown. They are two convergent phenomena, reflecting the "unity" of the late Urnenfelder world of the 10th/9th centuries BC and resulting from cultural-ethnical contacts in a "closed circle" from the Danubian region – southeastern Alpine region – Apennine Peninsula, supported by smaller migrations in the first centuries of the Iron Age, from the trans-Adriatic direction in Picenum (with definite Villanova influence), and in Liburnia probably from the hinterland. In this Adriatic circle in the first centuries of the Iron Age multiple cultural contacts between Liburnians, Histrians and Picenians are for now a good (initial) context for a more detailed interpretation of Liburnian cremation. Despite the aforementioned, it is not necessary to relate directly the structure (ritual, goods) of gr. 52, Numana – Qualiotti to Histrian patterns nor the grave 495, Numana-Davanzali to the Iapodian ones. Cremated Liburnian burial from the Early Iron Age represents a certain continuity and a "reflection" of the late Urnenfelder circle, which was manifested in different ways in the beginnings of the Liburnian, Picenian, and Histrian cultures and elsewhere. The latest excavations on a planned Liburnian-Roman necropolis in Nadin (Nedinum) provided us with new information about the spatial, chronological and symbolical relation (religious, social) between the autochtonous Liburnian and Roman component in the period of Romanization of northern Dalmatia.

Les premiers peuplements de l'Europe centrale et de l'Est

The first settlements of central and eastern Europe. The first human occupation of central and eastern Europe was not the result of climatic changes, but the consequence of an increasing control of the environment. The South of Europe was already inhabited 1.8 Ma ago. Man was an integral part of the biotope characterized by Mammuthus meridionalis, Dicerorhinus etruscus, Equus stenonis, Cervus perrieri as well as the carnivores Canis etruscus, Ursus etruscus, Megantereon megantereon, Homotherium crenatidens, and Pachycrocuta. Due to the stone implements, first of all the sharp edges of flakes, the meat of big animals was included into the diet. Obviously man's place was among the predators, but it is still unknown how dangerous he really was. The essential condition for the settlement of the temperate zones was the control of fire. At Bogatyri (Sinaja Balka), on the Taman Peninsula, together with a fauna with Mammuthus meriodinalis tamanensis, Elasmotherium caucasicum, Bison schoetensacki, Equus suessenbornensis, and lithic artefacts, there may be traces of fire. The age of this site is about 1 Ma. Isolated finds (Kärlich A, Brno. Červeny Kopec) seem to indicate an occupation of central Europe at the same period (Jaramillo). The human presence north of the Alps is proved for about 600 000 years ago (Mauer, Miesenheim I, Boxgrove, Achenheim 30). These sites show human occupation during periods of temperate climate. The control of environment permitted life in the glacial steppes rich of game from about 450 000 years ago (Kärlich H; MIS 12). At the end of Lower Palaeolithic (400 000–300 000), we got from central Europe important information concerning life-style, habitation, hunt, and weapons (Bilzingsleben, Schöningen, Kärlich-Seeufer). The lack of such evidence in eastern Europe is caused by a gap in research. To cite this article: G. Bosinski, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) .

Long-term differences in the dynamics within a natural forest landscape—consequences for management

Palaeoecological methods were used to study forest dynamics at stand and landscape scales in the Pechoro-Ilych Zapovednik in the Komi Republic in Russia. A survey of charcoal bands in peat deposits at 36 sites on a 160 km 2 area showed that the greater part of the landscape has burnt regularly. Here the landscape is dominated by Scots pine on dry soil. There are, however, Norway spruce sites, with a high permanent water table and with tall herb vegetation without traces of fire. Stand-scale, high-resolution pollen studies at one pine and one spruce site were consistent with the landscape results. Charcoal bands and fire-driven succession were observed at the pine site, whilst the spruce site had no evidence of fire during at least the last 2600 years. This study shows that the main part of this natural landscape has been regularly affected by fire, but also that there are networks of stands at a landscape scale that form stable fire-free refuge with a continuous forest cover. The presence of such a strong contrast in disturbance regimes within one landscape has important implications for the management of biological diversity in forestry.

Forest age distribution and traces of past fires in a natural boreal landscape dominated by Picea abies

Forest age distribution and occurrence of traces of past fires was studied in a natural Picea abies -dominated landscape in the Onega peninsula in north-west Russia. Forest age (maximum tree age) was determined and charcoal and fire scars were searched for in 43 randomly located study plots. In 70% of the study plots (30/43) trees older than 200 years existed. The largest 50-year age class consisted of plots with 251–300 year old forests. Traces of fires were found in all types of study plots, in forests on mineral soil as well as on peatlands. However, fire has been a rare disturbance factor, as traces of fires could not be found in 35% of the study plots (15/43). Estimated from the forest age class distribution, the fire rotation time for the whole area has been at least 300 years, but possibly considerably longer. This fire rotation time is much longer than fire history studies (largely based on examination of fire scars) commonly have reported for the average time between successive fires in Fennoscandia and Northwest Russia. The results suggest that the often stated generalisations about the importance and natural frequency of fire disturbance in boreal forests do not apply in landscapes dominated by Picea abies.

The Significance of Fire for Afroalpine Ericaceous Vegetation

Abstract This paper presents results from studies in 4 mountain regions in East Africa, 2 in Ethiopia (Simen Mountains, Bale Mountains), and 2 in Uganda (Rwenzori Mountains, Mount Elgon). The focus is on the ericaceous vegetation that forms the (upper) treeline ecotone at all sites. There is little evidence for climatic control of the patchy appearance of this belt in all afroalpine environments. Since traces of former fires were observed in all ranges, repeated burning is most probably responsible for the present appearance of the ericaceous vegetation in East Africa. The fires observed were almost exclusively lit by local people, who utilize the afroalpine zone for poaching, livestock grazing, and honey hunting. Although these fires are man-made and not strictly natural, they help to maintain a structurally and biologically diverse environment.

«Mámoa 87 de Serra Faladora» : un túmulo megalítico del Norte de Galicia

The outstanding work of survey and digging accomplished by the late F. Maciñeira ¡n the first decades of the present century was unfortunately not continuad until recent years, when new excavations with a modern methodology, together with a reappraisal of the materials recovered by IViaciñeira are throwing new light to the characteristics of the megalithic burial in the far North of Galicia. In this paper we are dealing with the analysis of the artefacts found in the mound 87th of Serra Faladora, which in spite of its ruinous condition at the time of Maciñeira's discovery might be possibly ciassified under the iabel of passage grave, though with some remarkable features like the extreme eccentricity of the chamber and the presence of a pit dug into the bedrock under the mound and filled with stones and earth with traces of fire (fig. 2A). The material items found in the disturbed chamber are very much in agreement with the typical set of Galician megalithic grave goods: ground stone axes, flint blades and pottery with simple forms and no decoration (figs. 3-6). However, the mound 87th detaches itself from the local pattern because of the number and variety of goods which is larger than usual. At the same time, other features, like the absence of arrowheads, are in full agreement with the pattern in the northern área of Galicia. In all, the mound 87th seems to reflect, with some local traits, the spread of more elabórate forms of megalithic burial in vast áreas of the Northwest of the Iberian penisula around the middie of the 3"^ millenium b.C.

Traces of fire in the archaeological record, before one million years ago?

The earliest undoubted evidence for the controlled use of fire by humans comes from sites no more than a million years old. Recently, however, very tentative evidence for the presence of fire has come from several Lower Pleistocene sites in Africa. A systematic approach to the problem of detecting and characterizing possible ancient fireplaces is clearly needed. The use of archaeometric techniques, particularly magnetic surveying and palaeomagnetism, may be crucial. Results from experimental and Holocene fireplaces in Australia are used here in an attempt to begin formulating an approach, and palaeomagnetic results from Lower Pleistocene sites in Africa are reviewed.

Once more on the age and stratigraphy of the petralonian man

The Petralonian skull and skeleton, found in 1960 at the Cave, belong to an individual of the Homo erectus stage. The fossils were found at the 11th layer of the cave stratigraphy and their age is supposed to be around 800,000 years old. This age is supported by faunal and microfaunal data, as well as by absolute dating techniques (ESR, and U/T methods). In the cave were found the oldest known traces of man-made fire on Earth (Poulianos, 1977) as well as bone and stone tools thought to be the oldest in Europe.

Forest fires in the Muddus National Park (northern Sweden) during the past 600 years

The occurrence of forest fires in the Muddus National Park (area, 50 000 ha), just north of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, was investigated on 75 separate sample plots. Between 1413 and the present, evidence of 47 fire years was obtained by dating the fire scars on living Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris), the oldest of which had germinated in 1274. The fire traces found on the sample plots were fire scars on living or dead trees or charcoal fragments in the humus layer. Plots lacking all traces of former forest fires were mainly those situated on sites surrounded by extensive mires. Forest fires were shown to have occurred in the five different types of forest investigated. The commonest frequencies of fires in the pine forests occurred with the interval 81–90 years, while the mean frequency was 110 years. The mean interval of time elapsed since the last forest fire occurred in the pine forests was 144 years. Some of the major fire years in the Muddus area coincide with forest fires in other parts of northern Sweden, in the taiga of western Russia, and in central Siberia.

Early archaeological sites, hominid remains and traces of fire from Chesowanja, Kenya.

Recent investigations of Lower Pleistocene sites at Chesowanja have yielded in situ Oldowan and Oldowan-like stone artefacts, evidence of fire and a fragmentary 'robust' australopithecine cranium. Burnt clay found at one artefact locality dated to >1.42±0.07 Myr is the earliest known evidence of fire associated with a hominid occupation site.

THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF THE EUCALYPTS AND FOREST FIRES IN SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA

SUMMARY The role of fire in the ecology of eucalypt forests is discussed in the light of observations in Tasmania and to a lesser extent in West Australia, South Australia and Victoria. The eucalypts are not only fire resistant but they also produce a great deal of fuel. Some species have bark which helps the spread of fire by the “spot fire” mechanism. All species seem to regenerate more abundantly after fire and some cannot regenerate without fire. One or two species seem to suffer and die from prolonged absence of fire. Traces of fire can be found wherever eucalypts occur in southern Australia. Consideration of these facts suggests that the eucalypts are dependent on fire for their present distribution and that the wide distribution of fire in the past may have been maintained by the eucalypts.

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Origins of Man in America

SEARCH for evidence bearing on the problem of early man in America, which has been carried on in New Mexico during the past five years by Mr. Edgar B. Howard under the auspices of the Academy of Natural Sciences and the University Museum, Philadelphia, is now to be extended farther afield. When it was announced a few years ago that the stone implements of a type hitherto unknown in America, but now known as ‘Folsom points', had been discovered near Folsom, New Mexico, by Prof. E. B. Renaud, of the University of Denver, a new orientation was given to the study of American archaeology, more especially in the attitude towards alleged associations of artefacts with the bones of extinct or presumedly early fauna. An antiquity for man in America greater than that generally admitted seemed a possibility. Mr. Howard's explorations in New Mexico, of which an account is to appear in the Museum Journal (Philadelphia), and especially his discoveries in a cave west of Carlsbad and in old lake beds near Clovis, New Mexico, at a depth of eight feet, of artefacts and traces of camp fires in association with the remains of extinct faunacamels, wild horse, elephantsindicate that Folsom man had penetrated to the south-west in Pleistocene times, when the Wisconsin ice-sheet was waning, a period of climatic change tentatively fixed at 10,000 years ago. No contemporary human remains have been found. Mr. Howard is of the opinion that further evidence must be sought in Asia, and is now on his way, with the assistance of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, to Russia, where he proposes to study the archaeology of Siberia and hopes to enlist the co-operation of the Soviet authorities in further exploration. In the meantime, Dr. F. de Laguna, also on behalf of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, has resumed her researches in Alaskaon this occasion in the Yukon Valley and with the object of tracking Folsom man on his way to the south-west.

Research Items

CAVE EXPLORATION AT LESPUGUE, FRANCE.—Cultural and chronological relations of some importance have been establihed excavations in the Grotte de Gouërris at Iespugue, which have been carried out by Comte de Saint Périer, and are described by him in L'Anthropologie, T. 37, Nos. 3-4. The cave was first discovered by Miss D. Carrod. When excayated it wa found to contain three leveh of occupation. Of these the latest was neolithic, when the cave was not used as a dwelling-place but solely for purposes of burial. Traces of fire have been discovered, which probably points to the preparation of funeral feasts in the cave. No signs of the habitation-sites of the people using the cave for burial purposes have been found in the neighbourhood. Of the two preceding occupation levels, the earliest was that of a paheolithic people, who, it is suggested, made no prolonged stay. Probably they were hunters following the herds of reindeer of which the remains are abundant. They belonged to an early stage of the Magdalenian epoch when the harpoon was still unknown. They appear to have been related to the population of Perigord rather than that of the Pyrenees. After a period which allowed of a con- siderable deposit of stalagmite, they were followed by a people of low culture. The climate by then had become warmer and more moist. This people, as is indicated by their culture, belonged to the very beginning of the transition period. There are many Magdalenian types of implement. The harpoons are not of the typical Magdalenian style, yet they have not yet attained the Ailian form with teeth on both edges. A comparison with Mae dAzil establishes the position of this culture as between the latest Magdalenian stratum at 1[as d'Azil (Couche D of Piette) and the stratum E in which the coloured pebbles and the full-fledged Azilian culture were found. Thus Piettes contention that the large flat harpoon with unilateral barbs belonged to quite the beginning of the transition period is not only supported but also is given greater precision in date.

An Aurignacian Floor at Heacham, Norfolk

The implements shown were found in Heacham Park while digging an ornamental lake in February, 1914. The tanged and barbed arrow-head of ruddy-brown flint, not lustrous, 1¾ in, long and ⅝ in. wide at the barbs, was found within a foot of the surface just below the turf. The others (Aurignacian, according to Mr. Reginald Smith) range in colour from blue-black to cream, and include a cream scraper, 2½ in. by 1½ in.; a flake, 4¾ in. by 1¼ in.; and an implement with traces of fire (Plate CXXII.).The section was as follows:—(1) 7–8 in brown peaty earth with roots, and at base chalky concretions of marl, scaling; 1 in. in diameter and less (brown arrpw-head here). This, graduates through (la) 2 in. a grey marly earth or clay, to (2) 8-in. white chalky clay, granular to sight after passage of spade, yet clayey to touch.