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<\/p>\n<\/a> This curious absence has stirred debate. Did hunter-gatherers abandon fire? Were they unable to find enough fuel during these harshest years of the Ice Age? Or has the archaeological record simply failed to preserve these ephemeral traces of life?<\/p>\n A recent study from a team of researchers working at Korman’ 9, a Paleolithic site in Ukraine’s middle Dniester valley, begins to offer some clarity. The results, published in Geoarchaeology1<\/a><\/em>, point not to a lack of fire, but to a high degree of sophistication in how it was managed, built, and possibly even seasonally adapted.<\/p>\n Using an array of geoarchaeological techniques—including micromorphology, microstratigraphy, and colorimetric soil analysis—the team identified three distinct hearths at the site. Each one was flat and open, built directly into the soil without constructed walls or pits.<\/p>\n But don’t let their simplicity fool you.<\/p>\n “People perfectly controlled the fire and knew how to use it in different ways, depending on the purpose,” said archaeologist Philip R. Nigst of the University of Vienna.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n One hearth, in particular, stood out: larger, deeper, and capable of producing higher temperatures than the others—above 600°C. This suggests that different fires may have been used for different tasks or in different seasons, perhaps reflecting shifts in resource availability or group mobility.<\/p>\n <\/a> The hearths appear to have been primarily wood-fueled, with charcoal traces pointing to spruce as a frequent fuel. But there’s more to the story. Some animal bones found near the hearths were scorched at over 650°C. Whether these bones were simply caught in the flames or deliberately burned as fuel is still under investigation.<\/p>\n “We are currently investigating whether they were used as fuel or just accidentally burned,” said zooarchaeologist Marjolein D. Bosch, who collaborated from institutions in Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Bone and fat as supplementary fuels would make sense in a landscape where wood was scarce, particularly in the frigid steppes of glacial Ukraine. These substances also burn hot and slow—valuable properties for people working with stone tools or cooking tough game meat.<\/p>\n The spatial organization of the hearths suggests more than just fire-making know-how. It hints at long-term planning. Seasonal reuse of the site was likely, with hearth construction varying in size and intensity based on shifting needs.<\/p>\n “Our results show that these hunter-gatherers used the same place at different times of the year during their annual migrations,” Nigst explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This adds to a growing picture of Ice Age mobility that wasn’t random but followed familiar, practiced routes, guided by game movement, environmental rhythms, and social memory.<\/p>\nEvidence from a Frozen Frontier<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nA Fire of Flesh and Bone?<\/h2>\n
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The Science of Seasonal Use<\/h2>\n
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