Pillar of Fire Theories

The pillar of fire was a unique phenomenon that led the Israelites at night through the wilderness for forty years. Many theories have been offered to explain this phenomenon such as it was mythical or metaphorical and never occurred. Other explanations include burning jets of natural gas, a brazier elevated on a pole, volcanic activity, brush fires, lightning, and a comet. The large and controlled shape of the pillar of fire, its appearance only at night for forty years, and its carefully directed path have been explained as miraculous. This article includes a scientific discussion of how the pillar might have been produced, reviews the many theories offered to explain the pillar of fire, and offers several new theories.     

Bushfire,prescribed burning,and non-human protection

Unprecedented bushfire activity is increasing around the world. A catastrophic bushfire event in the Australian summer of 2019–2020 burned over 18 million hectares. The Australian bushfires were just one set of events among many across the globe. Cumulatively, the losses are extraordinary: from losing over a quarter of the Pantanal wetland in South America to California’s Sierra Nevada and losses in the Amazon Forest. Bushfire destruction means a concomitant loss of biological diversity. Increased fire activity and frequency can adversely affect adaptive capacities of flora and fauna. Accordingly, across the globe, fire management practices and mitigation strategies are under increased scrutiny. In this article, we consider the extent to which one fire suppression strategy, prescribed burning, takes account of non-human considerations. Our examination of policy settings provides policymakers with a way to account for non-human interests. Our focus is Australia, specifically relating to one national park within New South Wales. Across the world, fire containment strategies must be reassessed to decipher how well non-human considerations are placed to withstand changing fire regimes. With likely increases in bush and wildfire activity across the globe, associated with Anthropocentric climate change, there is an urgent need to account for non-human interests in prescribed burning policies and regulations.     

EMPLOYING TL METHODS FOR THE VERIFICATION OF MACROSCOPICALLY DETERMINED HEAT ALTERATION OF FLINT ARTEFACTS FROM PALAEOLITHIC CONTEXTS

The reconstruction of past human use of fire is often based on the presence of fire in archaeological sites as evidenced by alterations of lithic material. Here, a simple test based on thermoluminescence (TL) methods is used as a verification tool for the macroscopic identification of burning damage on flint microartefacts from the Early and early Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (Israel). The small dimensions of the microartefacts often prevented the removal of the outer surface, for which the TL signal might have been altered (bleached) by exposure to light during excavation. Bleaching of the TL signal by sunlight was found for fresh raw material, but appeared to be less problematic for the archaeological material, presumably due to patination. However, TL results for some samples are ambiguous and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish heating from post‐depositional bleaching, especially for samples that are macroscopically considered as not having been heated. A qualitative interpretation of the TL data is compared with the macroscopic assessment. The general agreement of the TL analyses with the macroscopic observations provides an independent verification of the observed burning and thus supports the assumption that fire was used and controlled throughout the long occupational sequence of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov.     

Vitrification of basalt orthostats and mud building components from Tilmen Höyük (south-eastern Turkey): an experimental and geoarchaeological approach

Finds of basalt orthostats and mud building components from the archaeological site of Tilmen Höyük (south-eastern Turkey, early 2nd Millenium BC) preserve a glassy crust formed by vitrification of the material. It is proposed that such features are related to destructive fire events, which destroyed the wooden building elements and burned natural stones. The geoarchaeological and experimental approach confirms this hypothesis. The geochemical composition of experimental melts is comparable to that of natural basalts. Spot analyses evidence the heterogeneity of the melts, especially for mudbricks and ceiling plasters. It is concluded that the investigated finds were subjected to strong burning under oxidising conditions reached during a violent fire. Temperatures similar to those derived by experimental melting (1180–1195 °C) were likely reached in the fire at Tilmen in order to produce the glass observed.     

Analysis of Explorers' Records of Aboriginal Landscape Burning in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

The accounts of explorers and colonists in the Kimberley region of Western Australia were searched to find records of landscape burning by Aborigines. Analyses of these records provide estimates of the spatial and temporal patterns of fire across the region in historic times. The seasonality of fire varied across the region. In northern parts of the Kimberley landscape fire was recorded from May to October with peak levels in June and September. In southern parts of the region there are records of burning as early as February and March, through to August but no records of fire were made in late dry season months. Modern fire regimes were compared with historic by superimposing the routes taken by five explorers over a modern fire history map derived from satellite imagery. Tallies of the number of modern fires that intersect the explorer's daily and monthly route were compared with actual observations of fire made by the explorers in historic times. The results indicate an increase in early dry season fires and the overall frequency of fires across the region in modern times. Explorers' accounts were also examined to derive further information regarding Aboriginal landscape burning in different environments and to distinguish landscape burning from other uses of fire such as smoke signals and cooking fires.     

EXPLICATION,EXPLANATION, AND HISTORY

To date, no satisfactory account of the connection between natural‐scientific and historical explanation has been given, and philosophers seem to have largely given up on the problem. This paper is an attempt to resolve this old issue and to sort out and clarify some areas of historical explanation by developing and applying a method that will be called “pragmatic explication” involving the construction of definitions that are justified on pragmatic grounds. Explanations in general can be divided into “dynamic” and “static” explanations, which are those that essentially require relations across time and those that do not, respectively. The problem of assimilating historical explanations concerns dynamic explanation, so a general analysis of dynamic explanation that captures both the structure of natural‐scientific and historical explanation is offered. This is done in three stages: In the first stage, pragmatic explication is introduced and compared to other philosophical methods of explication. In the second stage pragmatic explication is used to tie together a series of definitions that are introduced in order to establish an account of explanation. This involves an investigation of the conditions that play the role in historiography that laws and statistical regularities play in the natural sciences. The essay argues that in the natural sciences, as well as in history, the model of explanation presented represents the aims and overarching structure of actual causal explanations offered in those disciplines. In the third stage the system arrived at in the preceding stage is filled in with conditions available to and relevant for historical inquiry. Further, the nature and treatment of causes in history and everyday life are explored and related to the system being proposed. This in turn makes room for a view connecting aspects of historical explanation and what we generally take to be causal relations.     

Comparative human and deer (Odocoileus virginianus) taphonomy at the Richards site,Ohio

The Richards site is attributed to the Philo phase of the Fort Ancient tradition of the Ohio Valley area. Human skeletal material from the site shows evidence of peri‐ and post‐mortem taphonomic changes, including cut marks, burning and fracturing. Previous analyses have discussed explanations for these changes, including secondary burial, ritual destruction and cannibalism. Researchers have theorised that, allowing for differences in anatomy among species, humans and animals butchered for the same purpose (consumption) will show similar patterns of taphonomic changes associated with butchery. The human remains at the Richards Site were disposed in general midden pits containing mixed cultural debris and faunal remains. White‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) constitutes approximately 60% of all the faunal bone, indicating that it was a major food resource. To test a cannibalism explanation, a comparative analysis of human‐induced taphonomy in human and deer skeletal remains was performed, using chi‐square and odds ratio tests. If humans were being used as a food resource, the pattern of butchery seen would mirror that of the deer. The analysis described here compares the patterns of treatment and disposal of human and deer skeletal elements at the Richards site, to test whether both species were used as food resources. Similar types of evidence for human‐induced taphonomic changes, including cutting, chopping, burning and breakage, can be seen in both species. However, results indicate that, in general, human remains show much more evidence of perimortem treatment than do deer remains. In fact, the common odds ratio for perimortem treatment in all bones is 3.25, indicating that a human bone is 3.25 times as likely as a deer bone to be affected by burning, cutting or chopping. This probably indicates that perimortem treatment of humans was greater than that necessary simply for butchering for consumption. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Date Palms and Opobalsam in the Madaba Mosaic Map

Abstract

The Madaba mosaic map shows two main vegetal motifs: the date palm and a mysterious bush. The inclusion of the date palm testifies to its economic importance in the region, and it would follow that the bush should also have a similar importance. This bush is best identified as the Judaean balsam or opobalsam, which we know from literary sources to have been grown in the lower Jordan Valley, and elsewhere, in the Roman period. This was a lucrative product. In the Madaba mosaic map, the bush is situated on both sides of the Jordan, which gives us an indication of the extent of its cultivation in the sixth century C.E.     

Build N Burn: Using Fire as a Tool to Evoke,Educate and Entertain

The visceral nature of fire was exploited in the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Britain by the burning down of timber buildings and monuments, as well as the cremation of the dead. These big fires would have created memories, perhaps even ‘flashbulb memories’, and this powerful mnemonic aspect of fire was likely of significance to the social and religious lives of individuals, families and communities. This article introduces the Build N Burn concept, where fires are recreated and deployed alongside public talks, performances, experimental archaeology activities and demonstrations by craft specialists to create memorable and informative public events. Three public engagements to date, two on the island of Arran and one in Caithness, both Scotland, are described here. In each case, we constructed replica timber structures inspired by local prehistoric sites, and then burned these down in a free-to-attend public event at dusk, evoking the culmination of a prehistoric festival. Build N Burn has, at its core, the principle of delivering memorable experiences for the public inspired by prehistory, underpinned by research and experiment, using events which draw on cross-sectoral collaboration and working with local communities. This article offers a critical reflection on work to date, and discusses future potential for such activities, utilizing the mnemonic power and transformational potential of fire for public engagement and experimental archaeology.     

Intentional or incidental thermal modification? Analysing site occupation via burned bone

Although there has been extensive experimental research on the thermal modification of bone, the results have rarely been applied to interpret zooarchaeological assemblages. The faunal assemblage from Wanderer's Cave, Australia was analysed to investigate the origins, timing and context in which faunal specimens became burned during the mid–late Holocene occupation of the site. Statistical analyses of uniformity of burning, burning over fracture surfaces and epiphyses, frequency of carbonisation by prey taxa, and thermal modification of canid modified specimens indicate that the majority of faunal specimens were unintentionally modified when on the surface of the deposit or while buried in sediment when fires were lit at subsequent site occupation events. Thermal modification at the site does not reflect intentional cooking activities. Significant preservation biases were identified from the lower acidic levels of the site, preventing knowledge of the early fire history at Wanderer's Cave.     

A palaeoenvironmental context for Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic activity in the Colne Valley: Offsite records contemporary with occupation at Three Ways Wharf,Uxbridge

Abstract

Multi-proxy analyses from floodplain deposits in the Colne Valley, southern England, have provided a palaeoenvironmental context for the immediately adjacent Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic site of Three Ways Wharf. These deposits show the transition from an open cool environment to fully developed heterogeneous floodplain vegetation during the Early Mesolithic. Several distinct phases of burning are shown to have occurred that are chronologically contemporary with the local archaeological record. The floodplain itself is shown to have supported a number of rare Urwaldrelikt insect species implying human manipulation of the floodplain at this time must have been limited or episodic. By the Late Mesolithic a reed-sedge swamp had developed across much of the floodplain, within which repeated burning of the in situ vegetation took place. This indicates deliberate land management practices utilising fire, comparable with findings from other floodplain sequences in southern Britain. With similar sedimentary sequences known to exist across the Colne Valley, often closely associated with contemporary archaeology, the potential for placing the archaeological record within a spatially explicit palaeoenvironmental context is great.     

ARE ACADEMIC MODELS OF URBAN SERVICE DISTRIBUTIONS RELEVANT TO PUBLIC POLICY?: LESSONS FROM NEW YORK

Studies identifying and explaining the patterns of service allocations within cities have proliferated in recent years. Methodologies have been refined and the quality of data has improved. Theories of service distribution tested in the research are largely of three types: (1) those that stress “underclass” explanations of racial, economic and/or political discrimination; (2) those that stress service conditions or neighborhood needs; and (3) those that stress bureaucratic decision rules. This article presents findings on the determinants of intra-city distribution patterns for sanitation, fire and police services in New York. These findings highlight some of the difficulties of existing explanations and suggest that a bureaucratic decision rule (BDR) model provides more guidance in interpreting frequently confusing and contradictory results. Though specific rules are hard to identify, use of the BDR model enables more meaningful policy recommendations.     

Digital imaging technology and experimental archeology: a methodological framework for the identification and interpretation of fire modified rock (FMR)

This paper presents the results of a series of experiments for the identification and analysis of fire modified rock (FMR). FMR is a common but frequently overlooked artifact type. Experiments were conducted simulating the effects of different hypothetical burning scenarios on rocks similar to those found in a South African Middle Stone Age site. A digital imaging method was then used to quantify FMR color values, designed to limit intra-analyst bias. Statistical tests and a blind test suggest that unburned rocks and experimental FMR can be separated statistically based on physical appearance. Two burning scenario models, based on measured experimental data were applied to archaeological FMR from a South African Middle Stone Age site named Pinnacle Point 5-6 (PP5-6) and show that the archaeological samples are not statistically different from a simulated campfire and possibly a lithic raw material heat-treatment fire.     

A Mississippian conflagration at East St. Louis and its political-historical implications

Abstract

A walled portion of the extensive Precolumbian civic-ceremonial precinct of East St. Louis, near present day St. Louis, Missouri, enclosed a cluster of as many as 100 small buildings or huts. The huts were associated with a walled ritual-residential zone or elite compound dating to the late Stirling phase (a.d. 1150–1200) and, importantly, were burned in a single conflagration. The burning of East St. Louis may have resulted from a ritual commemoration, an act of aggression, or an accidental fire; circumstantial evidence primarily supports the first scenario. With strongly diminished mound and architectural construction at the site in subsequent decades, and with the coeval disappearance of key ritual-residential buildings from the regional landscape after the burning, the ancient East St. Louis fire was part of a larger pattern of historical events that mark a downward turning point in the social and political history of Greater Cahokia.     

Empowering Pyromaniacs in Madagascar: Ideology and Legitimacy in Community‐Based Natural Resource Management

Development practitioners frequently rely on community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) as an approach to encourage equitable and sustainable environmental resource use. Based on an analysis of the case of grassland and woodland burning in highland Madagascar, this article argues that the success of CBNRM depends upon the real empowerment of local resource users and attention to legitimacy in local institutions. Two key factors — obstructive environmental ideologies (‘received wisdoms’) and the complex political and social arena of ‘community’ governance — challenge empowerment and legitimacy and can transform outcomes. In Madagascar, persistent hesitancy among leaders over the legitimate role of fire has sidetracked a new CBNRM policy called GELOSE away from one of its original purposes — community fire management — towards other applications, such as community management of forest exploitation. In addition, complications with local governance frustrate implementation efforts. As a result, a century‐long political stalemate over fire continues.     

4. THREE DOGMAS (MORE OR LESS) OF EXPLANATION1

What ought to count as an explanation? Such normative questions—what “ought to be” the case?—typically mark the domain that those with a type of philosophical aspiration call their own. Debates in the philosophy of history have for too long been marred by bad advice from just such aspirants. The recurrent suggestion has been that historians have a particular need for a theory of explanation since they seem to have none of their own. But neither the study of the natural sciences nor the study of narrative compels or even makes plausible the view that it will be possible to adduce the norms of explanation, either in history or elsewhere, in advance of identifying theories that explain. I readily concede to Stueber, Carr, and Førland the use of a certain vocabulary when speaking of others. But it is one thing to point to a pervasive habit of explaining behavior in certain terms. It is quite another to document that these explanations have any value as explanations. What apart from habit or philosophical dogma establishes any of their proposals as explanatory? Explanation by invoking the myth of the shared should be replaced by explanations that have empirical content.     

Burned bone in the Howieson’s Poort and post-Howieson’s Poort Middle Stone Age deposits at Sibudu (South Africa): behavioral and taphonomic implications

Despite a growing awareness of the wide range of information that can be provided by detailed analyses of burned bone from archaeological contexts, such analyses are still relatively uncommon. This paper focuses on the behavioral and taphonomic implications of burned bone from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) site of Sibudu Cave (South Africa), reporting on the analysis of a large sample (>377,000 fragments) of bone recovered from the Howieson’s Poort (HP) and post-HP MSA deposits at the site. Faunal remains were initially sorted into burning categories based on changes in color; microscopic analyses focused on the optical properties of the bone matrix (degree of preservation of the bone structure, reflectance and fluorescence) indicated that the color is a valid indicator of thermally altered bone in the Sibudu assemblage. The association of burned bone with hearths, the intensity of burning damage, and the sheer quantity of thermally altered bone suggests that the bone was not burned primarily as a result of natural fires. We propose that the high incidence of burned bone primarily reflects two types of site maintenance activities: first, the discarding of bone into fire as a means of disposing of food waste (as also argued by Cain [2005, Using burned animal bone to look at Middle Stone Age occupation and behavior. J. Archaeol. Sci. 32, 873–884], for a smaller sample of material from the post-HP and late MSA deposits at the site), and second, the incidental burning of bone on/near the surface during the periodic burning of plant-based bedding. In considering the taphonomic implications of the burned bone, we demonstrate that calcined bone is in fact more heavily fragmented than unburnt or moderately burned bone. Furthermore, cortical preservation was negatively correlated with the intensity of burning damage, which has implications for the study of surface modifications. These results indicate the importance of conducting thorough taphonomic analyses prior to making comparisons between units that show differing degrees or intensities of burning damage.     

Gardens and the Bush: Gardeners’ Attitudes,Garden Types and Invasives

Garden plants that invade native vegetation can be a threat to native ecosystems. The species composition of gardens near the bush in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia is shown to relate to environmental variation and the attitudes of gardeners to their recreation, to native plants and to the bush. Four types of gardens are discriminated: the species‐poor shrub garden; the local native garden; the woodland garden; and the gardenesque. A group of gardeners who valued functional gardens, and the hard work in creating a garden, largely produced gardenesque outcomes. A strongly conservationist group of gardeners had native, woodland or shrub gardens. A group of gardeners who valued romance and privacy largely had woodland gardens. A small group of gardeners who liked gardens to create themselves, and preferred to minimize the act of gardening, tended to the shrub garden outcome. Plant species that invade the bush are least frequent in the more manicured shrub and gardenesque styles of garden than in the more informal local native and woodland gardens, in a dissonance between expressed attitudes and outcomes. Most of the most invasive weeds in the bush are shown to be independent of their occurrence in adjacent gardens, suggesting that integrated control programs involving both all gardeners within dispersal range, and bush managers, are necessary. The existence of a small number of respondents who see benefits in environmental weeds in their gardens, suggests that such programs would be ineffective without regulation, a solution offered by no respondent. However, regulation might be ineffective without community understanding, the raising of which was the main solution suggested by the interviewed gardeners.     

Changing Fire Management in the Pastoral Lands of Cape York Peninsula of northeast Australia, 1623 to 1996

Accounts of European explorers between 1623 and 1880 indicate that fires were lit by Aboriginal people on Cape York Peninsula in northeast Australia throughout the dry season (May–October). Diaries kept by three generations of pastoralists in the Musgrave area (1913–1952, 1953–1974 and 1976–1992) show that burning activities were largely confined to a two to six week period between May and early August. The timing of burning depended on the amount and date of cessation of wet season rainfall. More rarely, ‘storm‐burning’, burning under hot conditions within a few days of the first heavy rains of the wet season, was undertaken. Long‐term pastoralists felt a responsibility to use fire wisely and had a detailed knowledge of the role of fire in land management. Their decisions to burn were based on the extent of grass curing, and soil and weather conditions, all of which affected the extent of each burn. They used early dry season fires mainly to maintain forage and control cattle movements. Storm‐burns were reputed to control woody weeds, but were used infrequently because of difficulty in controlling their spread and uncertainty as to when the next rains would stimulate new grass growth.     

Toddlers in Transition: Linear Enamel Hypoplasias in the Hadza of Tanzania

Bioarchaeologists often use linear enamel hypoplasias (LEH) as a proxy for systemic physiological stress in prehistoric populations. Increased incidences of LEH have been observed in many cases associated with rapid social or environmental changes, such as with the Neolithic transition and agricultural intensification. Still, there have yet to be studies published of LEH incidence among living peoples in the process of transitioning from foraging to a farming economy. It is important to document LEH occurrence in living groups with known subsistence strategies to better contextualise interpretations of bioarchaeological populations. Here, we present LEH data for a sample of the Hadza of Tanzania. We compare LEH incidence and frequency on the permanent anterior teeth of individuals who spent their infancy and early childhood (i) in the bush consuming wild foods; (ii) in the village with a weaning diet dominated by domestic cereals; and (iii) transitory, dividing their time between the bush and village. Our results demonstrate that Hadza living in the bush during the period of tooth formation less frequently have LEH on these teeth, and have fewer of them on average, than do villagers. This is particularly so for the comparison of men. The transient group is intermediate in LEH incidence, although not significantly different from the bush and village samples. A lower LEH frequency in the bush Hadza is consistent with a diet that meets nutrient requirements of tooth formation, but higher incidence in the village sample suggests interruption of enamel secretion, most likely due to malnutrition. Such studies provide valuable context with which to interpret and understand bioarchaeological evidence, and to track effects of sedentisation on the biology of modern foragers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.