Traces of fire in a 560,000-year-old occupation soil at Caune de l’Arago: response to the article by Professor Henry de Lumley

Abstract

This note is a reply to the comment “Did the first inhabitants of the Caune de l’Arago between 700,000 and 400,000 years BP have domesticated fire? Did they know how to light the fire at will?” by H. de Lumley, published in Comptes Rendus Géoscience in Volume 354, 2022, pages 41-45, https://doi.org/10.5802/crgeos.113. The comment in question concerns the article “Search for early traces of fire in the Caune de l’Arago at Tautavel (Eastern Pyrenees, France), combining magnetic susceptibility measurements, microscopic observations, and Raman analysis” by Deldicque et al., published online on July 29, 2021, in Comptes Rendus Géoscience in Volume 353, 2021, pages 247-264, https://doi.org/10.5802/crgeos.66.

Keywords

• charcoal
• Caune de l’Arago cave
• Magnetic susceptibility
• Raman spectroscopy
• Fire
• Middle Pleistocene
• Magnetic minerals