Bibliographic suggestions
The purpose of this list is to offer a general overview of the diversity of approaches, both methodological and interpretative, adopted by different research traditions within charcoal macro-remain analysis, alongside some basic texts on wood anatomy used by specialists in this field. It does not claim (or aspire) to be an exhaustive list of everything that has or will be published on the topic.
Note: Please send any bibliographic suggestions you may have (especially of recent publications) to E.Asouti@liverpool.ac.uk
General
Asouti, E.,
and P. Austin (2005) Reconstructing woodland vegetation and its relation to
human societies, based on the analysis and interpretation of archaeological
wood charcoal macro-remains. Environmental Archaeology 10: 1-18.
Asouti, E., and C. Kabukcu (2021)
Anthracology: charcoal science in archaeology and palaeoecology. Quaternary
International 593/594: 1–5.
Chabal, L., L.
Fabre, J.-F. Terral, and I. Théry-Parisot (1999) “L'anthracologie,”
in La Botanique. Edited by C. Bourquin-Mignot,
J.-E. Brochier, L. Chabal, et al., pp. 43-104. Paris:
Errance.
Delhon, C. (2021) Is choice acceptable? How
the anthracological paradigm may hinder the consideration of fuel gathering as
a cultural behaviour. Environmental Archaeology 26(2):159–167.
Dufraisse,
A. (ed.) (2006) Charcoal analysis: new analytical tools and methods for
archaeology. BAR (IS), 1483.
Figueiral, I. and V. Mosbrugger (2000) A
review of charcoal analysis as a tool for assessing Quaternary and Tertiary
environments: achievements and limits. Palaeogeography, Palaeoecology,
Palaeoclimatology 164: 397-407.
Kabukcu, C. (2018) “Wood charcoal analysis in
archaeology.” In Environmental Archaeology: Current Theoretical and
Methodological Approaches, edited by E. Pişkin, A. Marciniak, and M.
Bartkowiak, 133-154. Springer.
Kabukcu, C. (2018) Identification of woodland
management practices and tree growth conditions in archaeological fuel waste
remains: A case study from the site of Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, Turkey. Quaternary
International 463: 282–297.
Kabukcu, C., and L. Chabal (2021) Sampling
and quantitative analysis methods in anthracology from archaeological contexts:
Achievements and prospects. Quaternary International 593/594: 6–18.
Picornell Gelabert, L., E. Asouti, and E. Allué Marti (2011) The
ethnoarchaeology of firewood management in the Fang villages of
Equatorial Guinea, central Africa: Implications for the interpretation of wood
fuel remains from archaeological sites. Journal
of Anthropological Archaeology 30: 375–384.
Shackleton,
C. M. and F. Prins (1992) Charcoal analysis and the "Principle of Least
Effort" - A conceptual model. Journal of Archaeological Science 19:
631-637.
Théry-Parisot, I., J. Chrzavzez, and L.
Chabal (2010) Anthracology and taphonomy, from wood gathering to charcoal
analysis. A review of the taphonomic processes modifying charcoal assemblages,
in archaeological contexts. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology 291:142–153.
Thiébault, S.
(ed.) (2002) Charcoal analysis: methodological approaches, palaeoecological
results and wood uses. BAR (IS), 1063.
Methodology and interpretation
Adriano-Morán, C.C. and E. McClung de Tapia (2008) Trees and shrubs: the use of wood in prehispanic Teotihucan. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 2927-36.
Asouti, E. (2002) Charcoal Analysis from Çatalhöyük and Pınarbaşı, two
Neolithic sites in the Konya Plain, South-Central Anatolia, Turkey. PhD
thesis, University College London.
Asouti, E. (2003) Woodland vegetation and
fuel exploitation at the prehistoric campsite of Pınarbaşı,
south-central Anatolia, Turkey: the evidence from the wood charcoal
macro-remains. Journal of Archaeological Science 30(9):1185–1201.
Asouti, E.
(2003) Wood charcoal from Santorini (Thera): new evidence for climate,
vegetation and timber imports in the Aegean Bronze Age. Antiquity 77:
471-484.
Asouti, E. (2005) “Woodland vegetation and the exploitation of fuel and timber at
Neolithic Çatalhöyük: report on the wood charcoal macro-remains.” In Inhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports from the
1995-9 seasons, edited by I. Hodder, 213–258. British Institute of
Archaeology at Ankara.
Asouti, E. (2013) “Woodland vegetation, firewood management and woodcrafts at
Neolithic Çatalhöyük.” In Humans and
Landscapes of Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 2000-2008 Seasons, edited by I.
Hodder, 129–161. Monographs of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology UCLA.
Asouti, E., D. Baird, C. Kabukcu, K. Swinson,
L. Martin, A. , E.
Jenkins, K. Rasheed (2020) The Zagros Epipalaeolithic revisited: New
excavations and 14C dates from Palegawra Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. PLoS ONE 15(9), e0239564. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239564
Asouti, E., and J.
Hather (2001) Charcoal analysis and the reconstruction of ancient woodland
vegetation in the Konya Basin, south-central Anatolia,
Turkey: results from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük East. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
10:23–32.
Asouti, E., and C. Kabukcu (2014) Early Holocene oak park-woodlands in the Irano-Anatolian
region of Southwest Asia: natural or anthropogenic? Quaternary Science Reviews 90:158–182.
Asouti, E., C. Kabukcu, C. E. White, I.
Kuijt, B. Finlayson, and C. Makarewicz (2015) Early Holocene woodland
vegetation and human impacts in the arid zone of the southern Levant. The
Holocene 25(10):1565–1580.
Asouti, E., M. Ntinou, and C. Kabukcu
(2018) The impact of environmental change on Palaeolithic and Mesolithic plant
use and the transition to agriculture at Franchthi Cave, Greece. PLoS ONE 13(11), e0207805. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207805
Badal-Garcia,
E. (1992) L'anthracologie préhistorique
- À propos de certains problèmes méthodologiques. Bulletin
de la Société Botanique de France 139:167-189.
Beauclair, M., Scheel-Ybert, R., Bianchini, G.F. and Buarque, G. (2009) Fire and ritual: bark hearths in South-American Tupiguarani mortuary rites. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1409-15.
Binney, H.A., Willis, K.J., Edwards, M.E., Bhagwat, S.A. et al. (2009) The distribution of late-Quaternary woody taxa in northern Eurasia: evidence from a new macrofossil database. Quaternary Science Reviews 28: 2445-64.
Caracuta, V., B. Alex, L. Regev, J. Regev, E.
Mintz, O. Barzilai, I. Hershkovitz, and E. Boaretto (2021) The Marine Isotope
Stage 3 landscape around Manot Cave (Israel) and the food habits of
anatomically modern humans: New insights from the anthracological record and
stable carbon isotope analysis of wild almond (Amygdalus sp.). Journal of
Human Evolution 160, 102868. doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102868
Caracuta, V., M. Weinstein-Evron, R.
Yeshurun, D. Kaufman, A. Tsatskin, and E. Boaretto. (2016)
Charred wood remains in the Natufian sequence of el-Wad terrace (Israel): new
insights into the climatic, environmental and cultural changes at the end of
the Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 131:20–32.
Chabal,
L. (1990) “L'étude paléoécologique
de sites protohistoriques à partir
des charbons de bois: la
question de l'unité de mesure-Dénombrements
de fragments ou pesées?” in
Wood and Archaeology. First European Conference, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1988,
pp. 189-205. PACT 22. Download
Chabal, L. (1992) La représentativité paléo-écologique
des charbons de bois archéologiques issus du bois de feu. Bulletin de la Société Botanique
de France 139: 213-236. Download
Delhon, C., Thiébault, S. and Berger, J.-F. (2009) Environment and landscape management during the middle Neolithic in southern France: evidence for agro-sylvo-pastoral systems in the Middle Rhone Valley. Quaternary International 200: 50-65.
Deckers, K., and N. J. Conard (2011)
“Vegetation and wood use from the Pleistocene to the Holocene in the foothills
of the eastern Anti-Lebanon.” In Holocene Landscapes through Time in the
Fertile Crescent, edited by K. Deckers, 1–15. Subartu XXVIII. Brepols.
Dufraisse, A. (2008) Firewood management and woodland exploitation during the late Neolithic at Lac de Chalain (Jura, France). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17: 199-210.
Dufraisse, A., S. Coubray,
L. Picornell, M. Alcolea, O. Girardclos,
F. Delarue, and T.-T. Nguyen Tu (2022) Taming trees, shaping forests, and
managing woodlands as resources for understanding past societies. Contributions
and current limits of dendro-anthracology and anthraco-isotopy.
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10, doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.823968
Dufraisse, A., S. Coubray,
O. Girardclos, N. Nocus, M.
Lemoine, J.-L. Dupouey, and D. Marguerie
(2018) Anthraco-typology as a key approach to past
firewood exploitation and woodland management reconstructions. Dendrological
reference dataset modelling with dendro-anthracological tools. Quaternary
International 463B:232–249.
Dufraisse, A., A. M. Pétrequin, and P.
Pétrequin (2007) “La
gestion du bois de feu: un indicateur des contextes socio-écologiques. Approche
ethnoarchéologique dans les Hautes Terres de Papua (Nouvelle-Guinée
indonésienne).” In Sociétés Néolithiques. Des Faits Archéologiques aux
Fonctionnements Socio-Économiques, edited by M.
Besse, 115–126. Lausanne : Cahiers d’Archéologie Romande 108.
Eichhorn, B., J. Humphris, C. Robion-Brunner, and A. Garnier (2019) “A ‘long-burning issue’: comparing woody resource use for ironworking in three major iron smelting centres of sub Saharan Africa”. In Auf dem Holzweg ... Eine Würdigung für Ursula Tegtmeier, edited by J. Meurers-Balke, T. Zerl, and R. Gerlach, pp. 103–124. Archäologische Berichte 30. Kerpen-Loogh: DGUF-Verlag.
Emery-Barbier, A. and S. Thiébault (2005) Preliminary conclusions on the Late Glacial vegetation in south-west Anatolia (Turkey): the complementary nature of palynological and anthracological approaches. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 1232-51.
Figueiral, I. (1992) Méthodes en anthracologie
- Étude des sites du Bronze Final et de l'Âge du Fer
du Nord-Ouest du Portugal. Bulletin de la Société Botanique
de France 139: 191-204.
Figueiral, I. (2005) Quantification in charcoal analysis? Yes, but not always possible. Examples from problematic Portuguese sites. In Molera, J., Farjas, J., Roura, P. and Pradell, T. (eds.) Avances en Arqueometría 2005: Actas del VI Congreso Ibérico de Arqueometría (Universitat de Girona, 16-19 November 2005) pp. 223-228. Download
Heinz,
C. and S. Thiébault (1998) Characterization and palaeoecological significance
of archaeological charcoal assemblages during Late and Postglacial phases in
southern France. Quaternary Research 50: 56-68.
Heinz, C., Figueiral, I., Terral, J.-F. and Claustre, F. (2004) Holocene vegetation changes in the northwestern Mediterranean: new palaeoecological data from charcoal analysis and quantitative eco-anatomy. The Holocene 14: 621-27.
Heiss, A.G. and K. Oeggl (2008) Analysis of the fuel wood used in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age copper mining sites of the Schwaz and Brixlegg area (Tyrol, Austria). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17: 211-21.
Henry, A., I. Théry-Parisot I., and E.
Voronkova (2009) “La gestion du bois de
feu en forêt boréale: problématique archéo-anthracologique et étude d’un cas
ethnographique (Région de l’Amour, Sibérie).” In Gestion des Combustibles au
Paléolithique et au Mésolithique: Nouveaux Outils,
Nouvelles Interprétations, edited by I.
Théry-Parisot, S. Costamagno, and A. Henry. 17–37.
BAR International Series 1914. Oxford:
Archaeopress.
Henry, A., E. Zavadskaya, C. Alix, E. Kurovskaya, and S. Beyries (2018)
Ethnoarchaeology of fuel use in northern forests: towards a better
characterization of prehistoric fire-related activities. Journal of
Archaeological, Ethnographic and Experimental Studies 10(2):99–120.
Johannessen,
S., and C.A. Hastorf (1990) A history of fuel
management (A.D. 500 to the present) in the Mantaro
Valley, Peru. Journal of Ethnobiology 10: 61-90.
Kabukcu, C. (2015) Prehistoric Vegetation
Change and Woodland Management in Central Anatolia: Late Pleistocene-mid
Holocene Anthracological Remains from the Konya Plain. PhD thesis, The
University of Liverpool.
Kabukcu, C. (2017) Woodland vegetation
history and human impacts in south-central Anatolia 16,000–6500 cal BP:
Anthracological results from five prehistoric sites in the Konya plain. Quaternary
Science Reviews 176: 85–100.
Kabukcu, C., and E. Asouti (2022) “Early to
mid-Holocene vegetation history and human settlement in Anatolia.” In Winds
of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia, edited by C. Roosevelt, and
J. Haldon, 65–83. Chicago University Press & Koç University Press.
Kabukcu, C., E. Asouti, and J. Losh (2021) “Woodland vegetation, fuelwood and
timber use at Çatalhöyük: the anthracological remains from the 1996 to 2017
excavations.” In Peopling the Landscape of Çatalhöyük: Reports from the
2009-2017 Seasons, edited by I. Hodder, 73–89. British Institute at Ankara.
Kabukcu, C., E. Asouti, N. Pöllath, J.
Peters, and N. Karul (2021) Pathways to plant domestication in Southeast
Anatolia based on new data from aceramic Neolithic Gusir Höyük. Scientific
Reports 11, 2112. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81757-9
Kreuz,
A. (1992) Charcoal from ten early Neolithic settlements in Central Europe and
its interpretation in terms of woodland management and wildwood resources. Bulletin
de la Société Botanique de France 139: 383-394.
Kreuz, A. (2008) Closed forest or open woodland as natural vegetation in the surroundings of Linearbandkeramic settlements? Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17: 51-64.
Mallol, C., and A. Henry (2017)
Ethnoarchaeology of Paleolithic fire. Methodological
considerations. Current Anthropology 58(S16): S217–S229.
Marguerie, D. and J.-Y. Hunot (2007) Charcoal analysis and dendrology: data from archaeological sites in north-western France. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1417-33.
Marston, J.M. (2009) Modeling wood acquisition strategies from archaeological charcoal remains. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 2192-200.
Martinoli, D. (2009) “Reconstruction of local
woodland vegetation and use of firewood at two Epipalaeolithic cave sites in
southwest Anatolia (Turkey).” In From Foragers to Farmers: Papers in Honour
of Gordon C. Hillman, edited by A. S. Fairbairn, and E. Weiss, 161–170.
Oxford: Oxbow.
Mithen, S., P. Austin, A. Kennedy, H.
Emberson, N. Lancaster, and B. Finlayson (2007) Early Neolithic woodland
composition and exploitation in the Southern Levant: a comparison between
archaeobotanical remains from WF16 and present-day woodland at Hammam Adethni. Environmental
Archaeology 12(1): 49–70.
Moskal-del Hoyo, M., and
M. Ntinou (2016) “Charcoal remains from Sarakenos Cave (Boeotia, Greece).” In The
Sarakenos Cave at Akraephnion Vol. II: The Early Neolithic, the Mesolithic and
the Final Palaeolithic, edited by M. Kaczanowska, J. K. Kozlowski, and A.
Sampson, 47–59. Kraków: Polska Akademia
Umiejętności.
Ntinou, M. (2002) La paleovegetatión en el norte de Grecia desde el Tardiglacial hasta el Atlántico. Formaciones vegetales, recursos y usos. BAR International Series 1038. Archaeopress, Oxford.
Ntinou, M. (2011)
“Charcoal analysis at the Cave of the Cyclops, Youra,
northern Sporades.” In Τhe Cave of the
Cyclops: Mesolithic and Neolithic Networks in the Northern Aegean Greece Vol.
II: Bone Tool Industries, Dietary Resources and the Paleoenvironment, and Archeometrical Studies, edited by A. Sampson, 297–314.
Prehistory Monographs 31, INSTAP Academic Press.
Ntinou, M. (2021)
Vegetation change in southeastern Greece during the Late Pleistocene. The wood
charcoal record from Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece). Quaternary
International 593/594: 104–117.
Ntinou, M., and N.
Kyparissi-Apostolika (2016) Local vegetation dynamics and human habitation from
the last interglacial to the early Holocene at Theopetra cave, central Greece:
the evidence from wood charcoal analysis. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
25: 191–206.
Prior,
J., and D. Price-Williams (1985) An investigation of climate change in the
Holocene epoch using archaeological wood charcoal from Swaziland, Southern
Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 12: 457-475.
Riehl, S., E. Asouti, D.
Karakaya, B. M. Starkovich, M. Zeidi, and N. J. Conard (2015) Resilience at the
transition to agriculture: The long-term landscape and resource development at
the aceramic Neolithic tell site of Chogha Golan (Iran). BioMed Research
International. dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/532481
Roberts, N., J. Woodbridge, A. Bevan, A.
Palmisano, S. Shennan, and E. Asouti (2018) Human responses and non-responses
to climatic variations during the last Glacial-Interglacial transition in the
eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary Science Reviews 184:47–67.
Roitel, V. (1997) Végétation et
Action de l´Homme du Natoufien au Néolithique Acéramique dans le Haut-Euphrate
Syrien. PhD thesis, Université Montpellier II.
Rössner, C., K. Deckers, M.
Benz, V. Özkaya, and S. Riehl (2018) Subsistence strategies and vegetation
development at Aceramic Neolithic Körtik Tepe, southeastern Anatolia, Turkey. Vegetation
History and Archaeobotany 27(1):15–29.
Savard, M., M. Nesbitt,
and R. Gale. 2003. Archaeobotanical evidence for early Neolithic diet and
subsistence at M'lefaat (Iraq). Paléorient 29(1):93–106.
Scheel-Ybert, R., Gouveia, S.E.M., Pessenda, L.C.R., Aravena, R., Coutinho, L.M. and Boulet, R. (2003) Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution in the São Paulo State (Brazil), based on anthracology and soil δ13C analysis. The Holocene 13: 73-81.
Théry-Parisot, I. (2002) Gathering of
firewood during the Palaeolithic. In Charcoal Analysis. Methodological
Approaches, Palaeoecological Results and Wood Uses, edited by S. Thiébault,
243–249. BAR International Series 1063. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Thiébault,
S. (2002) “Approche de l’environnement végétal du site d’Öküzini
(Turquie) au Tardiglaciaire par l’analyse anthracologique.” In La Grotte d’Öküzini
: Évolution du Paléolithique Final du Sud-Ouest de l’Anatolie, edited by I. Yalçinkaya, M. Otte, J. Kozlowski, and
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Willcox,
G. (1999) Charcoal analysis and Holocene vegetation history in southern Syria. Quaternary
Science Reviews 18: 711-16.
Willis, K.J. and T. van Andel (2004) Trees or no trees? The environments of central and eastern Europe during the Last Glaciation. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 2369-87.
Willis, K.J., Rudner, E. and Sümegi, P. (2000) The full glacial forests of central and southeastern Europe. Quaternary Research 53: 203-13.
Zapata, L., L. Peña-Chocarro, J. J. Ibáñez,
and J. E. González Urquijo (2003) Ethnoarchaeology in the Moroccan Jebala (Western Rif): Wood and dung as fuel. In Food,
Fuels and Fields – Progress in African Archaeobotany, edited by K. Neumann,
A. Butler, and S. Kahlheber, 163–175. Africa Praehistorica 15. Köln: Heinrich-Barth-Institut.
Wood anatomy and identification
Barker, J. E. (2005) A
prototype interactive identification tool to fragmentary wood from eastern
central Australia, and its application to Aboriginal Australian ethnographic
artefacts. Ph.D. Thesis, School of Earth and Environmental
Sciences, University of Adelaide [ http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37793
]
Fahn,
A., E. Werker, and P. Baas (1986) Wood anatomy and
identification of trees and shrubs from Israel and adjacent regions.
Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Greguss,
P. (1959) Holzanatomie der Europäischen laubhölzer und sträucher. Budapest: Akademial
Kiado.
Hather,
J. G. (2000) The identification of northern European woods. London:
Archetype.
Panshin, A. J.
and C.
De Zeeuw (1980)
Textbook of Wood Technology. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill, NY.
Schweingruber, F. H. (1990) Anatomy of European Woods.
Stuttgart: Haupt.
Vernet,
J.-L., Ogereau, P., Figueiral,
I., Machado Yanes, C. and Uzquiano, P. (2001) Guide
d’identification des charbons
de bois préhistoriques du sud-ouest de l’Europe. Paris:
CNRS.
Wilson,
K., and D. J. B. White (1986) The anatomy of wood: its diversity and
variability. London: Stobart & Son.
© Eleni Asouti, 2025