Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Contextualizing the Neolithic: Regional Approaches to Sedentism and Domestication in the Konya Plain, Ankara, Türkiye, 8 - 10 Aralık 2023, ss.1-2
Undoubtedly, fire has a vital importance in the context of human biological and cultural evolution. As a sustainable energy source, it has been used in the context of socialization, craft, art, production, and the creation of the symbolic world, as well as its basic functions such as heating, cooking, and obtaining light since the Paleolithic age. It is seen that the hearths inside and outside the houses and similar structures that emerged in many radical changes brought by the Neolithic after the Paleolithic age turned into permanent structural elements in the center of daily life. This transformation has been clearly observed in the houses excavated in Boncuklu Höyük and the determination of hearth areas of different forms and sizes in open areas outside the house. However, the fact that these elements have been identified during the excavations is may not sufficient to understand the use of fire and therefore hearths from an archaeological point of view. For this reason, as a result of experimental studies based on archaeological data, some inferences have been made that will make it possible to understand the use of hearths for cooking and heating purposes and their effects in the building. In the studies carried out in the experimental houses, it has been understood that the different fuel raw materials, especially in Boncuklu Höyük, vary in the context of elements such as heat, light, calories, and smoke. In addition, it has been understood that Neolithic people may have taken some mitigation measures by making feasible or possible structural adjustments in the building in order to control the effect of the amount of fuel used on the flame sizes and the smoke density. It has also been observed that the use of fire is an activity that seems to be simple but is shaped by a set of decisive behaviors in highly variable conditions such as wind, humidity, and temperature, and can be realized with experience.