Choiceoffuelin ethnography
Ithaslong been noticed thattheresiduesofaburned fueloccupy alargeproportion ofthemacro- botanicalremainsobtained by flotation [Millerand Smart1984;Reddy 1998;Valamoti2013 and theotherpapersin EnvironmentalArchaeology,volume18(1)]. Variouscombustiblematerials,such aswood,dung,chaff,straw,roots,ordry herbaceousplants,can beused asfuelsfortraditional ovensand hearths. Depending upon theirnature,thesefuelsareused fordifferentpurposes,and theethnographicalrecordsshow thattheircharactersarewellrecognized by theusers.
In general,thewood iseasy to lightand quick to burn,whereasthedung ishard to lightand produceslong and steady fire. To takeadvantageofthesecharacters,thedung isgenerally used forlong-timecooking,likesimmering,stewing,orboiling largeamountofwater[e.g.Sweet1960]. Thewood isappreciated in variouspurposes,especially in heating bread ovens. However,thestraw and chaffburn outmorequickly,and thereforearenotused asthemain fuels,butareoften used to startafire.
Often,thedifferenttypesoffuelareused atthedifferentstagesofcooking. In avillageofAinata in westSyria,onefamily used dried chickpea,and anotherfamily used torn pagesfrom thetextbooks to lightolivebranches. In theNileDelta,abread oven isheated with threekindsoffuelin the orderoftheamountofsmokeproduced by them,starting with thecorn straw,which isfollowed by thecotton stem and dung cakes[Rizqallah and Rizqallah 1978].
Furthermore,thequality ofthefirewood dependson thespeciesofthewood used. In adetailed study on theforestutilization ofJebalain Morocco,thepistachio and oak woodswerereported as“very good fuels”,thegrapevinewood wasfavored forbread ovens,and thepoplarand carob woodswere regarded as“poorfuels”[Peñaetal.2003:Table1]. In Jordan,thebranchesofaChenopodiaceae plant,Suaedasp.,areused forhigh-temperatureburning [Hather1993:74]. Oliveisgenerally regarded asagood firewood in theMediterranean,and themedievalcookbook also recommends theuseofdried olivebranchesforcooking,butinstructsto avoid fig becauseitproducesmuch smoke [Arberry 1986:38–39].
In dry regions,likewestern and centralAsia,sometimesthedung istheonly fuelchoice. Even so,peoplechoosetherighttypeofdung becausethenatureofdung varieswith theanimal, season,and method ofpreparation. In Kizilkayain centralTurkey,peopleuseeightdifferenttypes ofthedung fuelfordifferentoccasions;they useonly thedungsofsheep and cow asfuels,but rejectthedungsofdonkey and horse. Thehard,dense,and compacttypesofdung areused for long-lasting heat,whereastheunprocessed dung orlightsummerdung cakesareused to lightfire [Anderson and Ertug-Yaras1998].
Thedung ofequidsisavoided asafuelprobably becauseofitsrelatively high contentofthe undigested fibrousmatter,which burnsup quickly. However,probably forthatreason,thedung of camelispreferred forbaking bread on saj,aconvex metalplate,by theBedouinsin southern Levant [Palmer2002:179]. Thin,unleavened bread-baking on hearth doesnotrequirelong-lasting heat; therefore,in Malyan (Iran),thelight-burning fuels,such asstraw and dry herbaceousplants,are used forbaking on themetalplate,whereasthewood and dung fuelareused fortheotherfiring
* Japan Society forthePromotion ofScience,c/o TheUniversity Museum,TheUniversity ofTokyo,7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo,Tokyo 113-0033,Japan
FUEL CHOI CES I N ETHNOGRAPHY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY
ChieAKASHI*
purposes[Miller1982:89–91].
Owing to itsability to confineheat,thedung issometimesirreplaceablewith theotherkinds offuel. In southern Levant,thetabunoven requiresdung asafuelto coveritsouterwalland retain theheat[McQuitty 1984;McQuitty 1993]. TheJebalapeoplein Morroco usewood asa fuelfordaily heating and cooking,and dung asafuelforpottery-making. Theunfired pottery piled up in an earthen hollow isfirstcovered with thedried dung cakes,and then with thefresh dung to regulatetheheat. Thewood isoften used to lightthedung;in onevillage,thebottom ofthehollow isfilled with wood beforeputting thepottery. Thefig wood isspecifically selected forthispurpose becauseitproduceslessheat,which issuitableforthetypeoftheclay used in pottery [Peñaetal. 2003:170–171].
Asmentioned above,peoplecarefully selectdifferentfuelsfordifferentpurposes. Thechoice ofthefuelisinfluenced mainly by 1)theheating timeand 2)thetypeoffuel-firing facility. Other factorsincludetheamountofsmoke,temperature,and so on. Ofcourse,theenvironmentaland economic limitations, such as the scarcity of wood, seasons, or lack of domestic animals, are considered first,butthesetwo factorsseem to affectthechoiceoffueleven when theoptionsof fuelarelimited.
Variouskindsoffuelareused forproducing open firein hearthsthan in ovens,exceptin bread- baking on ametalplate. In Kizilkaya,alleighttypesofdung fuelcan beused in hearth (ocak),
Table1 Fuelsused in bread baking
Source Fueltype
Bread type Village
Southern Levant
Mulder-Heymans2002 cow’sdung and wood
tabun Abtaa
McQuitty 1984 dung (wood to startfire)
tabun North Jordan
Ali2009 dung orwood
tabun Ajlun
Palmer2002 camel’sdung
sajand hearth Bedouins
WestSyria
Mulder-Haymans2002 Wood
tannur ArehaNsebeen
Sweet1960 Wood
tannur TellToqaan
Author(summerin 2009) wood (herbaceousplantsto startfire)
tannur Ainata
EastSyria
Galan and Al-Othman 2003 wood,branch,straw
tannur TellBeydar
Mulder-Haymans2002 stem ofcotton
tannur As=Suwar
Mulder-Haymans2002 stem ofcotton
tannur Tarif
Anatolia
Parker2011 dung (wood and cotton to startfire)
tannur Bismilregion
Author(summerin 2008) wood (herbaceousplantsto startfire)
tannur Salat
Weinstein 1973 chaff
brick oven Asvan
Anderson etal.1998 dung
tannur Kizilkaya
Other
Miller1982 straw,sesamestem,herbaceousplants
towaand hearth Malyan (Iran)
Rizqallah and Rizqallah 1978 dung (stem ofcorn and cotton to startfire)
oven Deltadistrict(Egypt)
Author(summerin 2015) cow’sdung
tannur Machay (Uzbekistan)
butonly fiveareused in bread oven (tandır). Mostethnographicalrecordsshow thatthedung is notusually used asafuelin ovens. Oncean oven isheated,itcan confineheatinside,eliminating theneed forlong-lasting fuels;however,quick-burning typefuelsaremoreconvenient. In theregions wheredung isused asafuelin ovens,thechoiceismadeon thebasisoftheenvironmentalconditions (scarcity ofwood orforbidden deforestation).
Theculturalpreferencesalso affectthechoiceoffuel,buton thewhole,ovensdemand quick- and lighter-burning fuels,whereasforhearths,onecan chooseasuitablefueldepending on what to cook orheat. Dung isprimarily used asafuelforopen hearths,especially in long-timecooking and boiling.
Choiceoffuelin archaeologicalsites The selection of appropriate fuel for managing various activities, such as cooking, heating, lighting, fumigating, drying, and manufacturing, has been performed sincetheprehistorictimes. It hasbeen demonstrated by theuseoftwo differentfuelsin TellGhanem al-Ali,an Early Bronze Age site located in the Middle Euphrates, 50-km east of the modern city ofar-Raqqa(Fig.1). The author investigated the macro-botanical remainsfrom threemain trenchesofthis site, and the results showed a clear differencein thechoiceoffuelbetween the trenches in the uppermost Phase 3 (EBIVb).
In squares 1 and 2, the ordinary houses comprising multiple rectangular rooms with stone foundation wereexcavated,and severalround firing installationsand hearthswererecovered. In square7/8,abuilding (5 m by 9 m)ofsomewhatdifferentnaturewasfound. Itsnorthern room wasequipped with threeround firing installationsin arow along thenorthern wall,and threeplaster basins,also in arow along themud-brick wallseparating thebuilding. In themiddleoftheroom, alarge,circularash pitwith itsbottom covered with flatstoneswaspresent[Hasegawa2010].
In addition,apeculiarplantassemblagewasfound in thesquare7/8 compared to theothersquares (Table2). Thebotanicalsamplesobtained from thesquares1 and 2 reflected thetracesofvarious
Table2 Plantremainsfrom TellGhanem al-Ali,phase3
Square7/8 Square2
Square1
3,301 6,485
12,282 Numberofremains
2 15
18 Seed-to-charcoalratio*
156:1 2:1
22:1 barley to otherfood plants
89:1 4:1
20:1 Grain-to-rachisratio
23％ 52％
42％ Percentageofwild taxa**
Polygonaceae Fabaceae,Chenopodiaceae
Chenopodiaceae Majorwild taxa
*Seed-to-charcoalratio = numberofwild seeds/amountofcharcoal.
**Aizoonseedswereexcluded asmany uncharred seedswerecontained in thesamples.
Fig.1 Location ofthesitesmentioned in thispaper
activitiesin theseareas. Themostpredominantcrop wasbarley,butgrapepipswerealso abundant. Among thewild species,Prosopis,Astragalus/Trigonella,Atriplex,and Suaedawerefound in large number,and thesefourspeciesaloneaccounted for45–61% ofthewild taxa;however,thesespecies werescarcein thesquare7/8,wherePolygonaceaeseedswerethemostpredominant(30%)(Fig.
2).
Theseed:charcoal(S:C)ratiosofthesquares1 and 2 werefound to beseven to ninetimes higherthan thatofthesquare7/8. An increasein theusageofthedung fuelissuggested with an increasein theS:C ratio (Miller1984). Two ofthesampleswereparticularly likely to bethedung fuelresidue,becauseofthepresenceofcoprolitesand abundanceofProsopis,which isnotlikely aweed. Moreover,many Suaedaseedswerefound covered with dung tissuein thesesamples. It islikely thatthedung and wood wereused asdaily fuelsforcooking and heating in thesquares1 and 2.
On theotherhand,in thesquare7/8,morespecialized useofthefuelswasimplied by an archaeobotanicalstudy. Thesoilsamplesweretaken mainly from thenorthern room. Mostofthe macro-remainswerebarley grains(76%),accompanied by asmallportion ofthewild taxa(23%), and only afew rachises. Wild seed-to-charcoalratio in thesquare7/8 wasfound to bemuch lower than thatin theothersquares. Thepredominanceofbarley grains,scarcity ofchaffand straw,low percentageofwild taxa,assemblageofwild species,and abundanceofcharcoalindicatethatthis room wasdedicated to cooking orprocessing ofbarley using wood asfuel.
Interpretation offiring installation and cooking method with fuel
Thedifferencein thechoiceoffuelin each squareindicatesthedifferentuseoffiring facilities. Theround,conical,orcylindricalfiring featuresareso common in archaeologicalsitesallover WestAsiafrom theNeolithicto theIslamicperiod. Very littleattention hasbeen paid to thedefinition, classification,orunderstanding oftheactualuseofthesefeaturesprobably becausethey areso common.
Mostscholarsassumed thatthoseinstallationswerebread ovensowing to theirsimilarity to themodern tannur. However,besidesTellGhanem al-Ali,GridsW12/13 ofSelenkahiyeisonly other examplein theEarly BronzeSyriathatarchaeobotanicalassemblagesupported thatthoseinstallations wereinvolved in thecooking/processing ofcereals[van Zeistand Bakker-Heeres1985/86]. Itwas notclearwhethersuch round firing installationswereactually used to bakebread and notto cook meatorvegetables,orwhetherthey wereovensand nothearthswhen theupperpartsofthefiring facilitiesweremissing. A numberofethnographicalexampleshaveshown thatthetannurwasused asahearth aswellby putting apoton itsupperopening. Besides,therearemany typesofprocessed
Fig.2 Wild plantassemblageofTellGhanem al-Ali
cereals,such asporridge,roasted grain,bulgur,and so on. In WestAsia,bread isthecurrentstaple food;however,variouskindsofporridgerecipesarelisted in thecookbooksoftheMiddleAges [e.g.Arberry 1986;Nasrallah 2010;Perry 1986].
Thereconstruction ofthefuelused mightbeableto clearthispoint. Themotifin choiceof fueldemonstrated in theethnographicalrecordsprobably would haveprevailed in theBronzeAge aswell. Ifboth wood and dung wereused asfuels,wood wasmorelikely to bechosen forovens orshort-timecooking. Dung fuelindicateslong-timeheating involved in cooking foodssuch as porridgeorstew. In adomesticspace,wheremultipleactivitiesareconducted,such an explanation mightbecomplicated. However,ifthespacewasused forlimited purposes,likethesquare7/8 of TellGhanem al-Ali,thereconstruction offuelwillbesimplerwith macro-botanical,micro-botanical, and archaeogeologicalanalyses. Thechoiceoffuelcan beregarded asan importantclueto interpret theactualuseofthefiring facilitiesand cooking methodsin thepast.
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