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The use of fire at Zhoukoudian: evidence from magnetic susceptibility and color measurements

  • Article
  • Geology
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

In order to provide direct evidence for the use of fire by humans at Locality 1, Zhoukoudian, we examine the burnt and unburnt sediments of newly excavated area in Layer 4 by detailed measurements of magnetic susceptibility, color, and diffuse reflectance spectrum. Results show that the magnetic susceptibility and redness of the burnt sediments are remarkably higher than those of other areas on the same level: up to ~22 times for magnetic susceptibility and ~3 times for redness of those of the adjacent unburnt sediments. Fine-grained (superparamagnetic/stable single-domain) magnetite and hematite grains make dominant contributions to the distinctly high values of magnetic susceptibility and redness in the burnt sediments. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy results show that the burnt sediments contain more hematite than those of other areas and localities 2 and 3. High-temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements demonstrate that the burnt sediments have been heated above 700 °C. Those changes in low-frequency magnetic susceptibility and redness are impossibly resulted from natural fires, thus most likely signaling the human activities of controlled use of fire. However, further work is needed to confirm whether or not these heat-affected sediments were produced in situ.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Gao Xing and Dr. Zhang Yue for their help during fieldwork. We thank Li Shihu, Cai Shuhui, Zheng Yan, Li Qian, Wu Bailing, Ge Kunpeng, Kong Yanfen, Sun Lu, Liu Suzhen for their help during field sampling and laboratory experiments. We are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript. Mineral magnetic and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy measurements were made in the Paleomagnetism and Geochronology Laboratory, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Color was measured in Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment of Chinese Academy of Sciences. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2007FY110200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yan Zhang, Zhengtang Guo, Haibin Wu, Chunxia Zhang, Qin Li & Yang Song

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yan Zhang, Qin Li & Yang Song

  3. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Chenglong Deng & Rixiang Zhu

  4. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Shuangquan Zhang & Junyi Ge

  5. Faculty of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Deai Zhao

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  1. Yan Zhang
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  2. Zhengtang Guo
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Correspondence to Zhengtang Guo.

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Zhang, Y., Guo, Z., Deng, C. et al. The use of fire at Zhoukoudian: evidence from magnetic susceptibility and color measurements. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 1013–1020 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-0111-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-0111-7

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