Malawi

Project Description.

A closer look at humanity´s early use of fires. Humans leapfrogged the technological evolution process when they learned how to produce and control fire. However, relatively little is known about the rise of early pyrotechnology. The EU-funded MicroAsh project will reconstruct Middle and Later Stone Age pyrotechnology variability focusing on three closed-space rockshelters in Kasitu Valley in Malawi and characterize ashes, the main sedimentary components at these sites. The project will apply geoarchaeological techniques to study site formation processes, fire use and paleoenvironment relationship, variability in fire use for ritual and subsistence purposes through time, and site-use intensity. MicroAsh will also create open experimental datasets on characterized ashes.