Experiments in Bone Burning

Abstract

Most people, when building a fire, look for wood for their fuel source. However, wood was not available for some people in prehistory. Early arctic people of the Beringia area may have used bones as a primary fuel source. Looking at the environmental conditions of Alaska approximately 14,000 to 11,000 years ago, it could have been possible to burn bones as an alternate fuel source. Possible bone fires may have been performed at other locations around the globe, and these sites are compared to a site in central Alaska. Experiments were designed to test the feasibility of burning bones. The control for the experiment used bones that were not cooked in any way, while the variable test used boiled bones. The tests used bones from various hoofed mammals, dried grass, and pieces of lard.