The application of forensic fire investigation techniques in the archaeological record

This paper seeks to assist in defining a role for a suite of adapted techniques of analysis and interpretation that are drawn primarily from the methods of contemporary forensic fire investigation. In so doing, the paper identifies a general paucity of literature providing detailed discussions of structural fires preserved in the archaeological record. In addition the paper provides a generalised account of the manner in which structural fires (most especially compartment fires, defined later) will tend to burn and which tools can assist in the interpretation of fire dynamics, the identification of points of origin of fire within buildings, and the response of building materials to burning. Ultimately, such an approach can improve understanding of past structures, and also provide an interpretative avenue for understanding human response to fire and the risk of structural fire in the past.     

1500 Years of Pottery: Neutron Activation Analysis of Northern Chilean Domestic Ceramics from Caleta Vitor and Clay Samples from Nearby Valley,Coast and Highland Contexts

This paper presents the findings arising from neutron activation analysis (NAA) of northern Chilean domestic ceramic samples from Caleta Vitor (n = 38) and clay samples (n = 15) from nearby valley, coast and highland contexts. This study presents the first NAA data set of ceramics spanning a temporal period of 1500 years (c.2000 to c.476 bp ) from the Vitor Valley as well as the first attempt to use NAA to characterize potential clay sources in the region. On the basis of this study, we argue that the majority of domestic ceramics from Caleta Vitor share compositional similarities with clay samples collected from nearby valleys, allowing us to infer that the Caleta Vitor populations primarily procured their clay for domestic ceramics from local sources throughout a 1500‐year period. Thus, despite the fact that there were inter‐regional interactions during this period that included the influence of powerful Andean polities, it would appear that domestic ceramics continued to be produced locally, and by implication it can be argued that such interactions did not substantially affect this sphere of material culture production. Further, the apparent continuities in domestic ceramic production allow us to reflect on local decision‐making processes throughout the cultural phases considered in this research.