![]() ![]() in the form of turves - was used to control a fire on the floor of the pit. These coatings indicate that material from the upper horizons top of a podzol profile – e.g. The lower fill typically contains fragments of charcoal and some wood tar, but also black coatings around sand grains, that is interpreted as charred humus from a podzol B-horizon. Our results show that the upper fill of these pits contains considerable amounts of non-charred degraded organic matter. ![]() This is the first study to investigate one of such pits in its entirely, instead of only the lower, charcoal-rich fill. Using soil micromorphology, we investigated the genesis and taphonomy of several pit hearth features, embedded in sandy podzolic soils from Kampen (the Netherlands). Pit hearth features form a common phenomenon in the Mesolithic of North-West Europe, and the Netherlands and adjacent parts of Germany and Belgium in particular. It is clear, however, that there is a lot to be said about ‘pit hearths’ and that, despite the vast body of data, there is still no consensus on their function or functions. A number of possible functions, including pits for roasting, cooking and smoking food, the heating of flint and other stone, and in particular the production of tar are discussed in more detail. In addition, on the basis of 14C dates there exist spatial configurations of statistically ‘contemporaneous’ pit hearth features. ![]() ![]() The spatio-temporal distribution of pit hearth features is not homogeneous at a landscape level shifting patterns can be observed over the long-term at the regional level but also on the level of the individual site. In general, pit hearth features are filled with little more than charcoal and sand flint and other lithics are rare, as is (charred) bone. In this paper we briefly discuss different aspects of these features, such as shape and size, infill and contents, as well as spatio-temporal patterning, on a (sub-) regional scale and at site-level. BC, and also in later periods, although in much smaller numbers. They occur throughout the Mesolithic, between c. Pit hearth features are omnipresent on the coversand area in the Netherlands and bordering regions, especially the northern part of the Netherlands. ![]()
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