Archaeological Charcoal Analysis in New Zealand

Authors

  • Rod Wallace Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland
  • Simon J Holdaway

Keywords:

charcoal identification, floral remains, fire history, New Zealand archaeological hearths

Abstract

Charcoal is well preserved and abundant in many New Zealand archaeological sites. When identified to species it provides a means of reconstructing past vegetation communities adjacent to occupation sites. However, the way charcoal deposits accumulated needs to be considered before species identifications are converted into vegetation reconstructions. Here a number of examples from New Zealand archaeological sites illustrate how charcoal identification when combined with a consideration of the contexts from which samples are derived allow inferences to be made about human interaction with the fire histories of past vegetation communities.

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Published

06-09-2017

How to Cite

Wallace, R. and Holdaway, S. J. (2017) “Archaeological Charcoal Analysis in New Zealand”, Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 8(2), pp. 17–30. Available at: https://pacificarchaeology.org/index.php/journal/article/view/205 (Accessed: 5 November 2024).

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