Påverkan av skogsbrand på litiska arkeologiska fynd – experimentell simulering av brand

Sammanfattning: This is a paper about the effects from smoldering fire on lithic objects from an archaeological view. The introduction gives the background to this paper, a short orientation to forest wildfires and why the work is limited to: flint, quartz, quartzite and slate. Material and methods describes the stone materials and the setup that was used in the temperature logged tests with three replications for each type of material. The fuel in the burnings was peat on a bottom of sand. Flint showed a more drastic effect from heat compared with the other materials. Slate seems to have greater tendencies to change to darker colour and luster at lower temperatures than the other materials. There an object was located in the ground had importance for if thermal alteration occurred and how great the alteration was. The biggest risk for damage was on material in the peat and where was some alteration on material just beneath the surface of the sand. Objects deep in the sand showed that the risk for alteration where was very small. The temperatures reached during these circumstances were rather low.