Rare
Schilt tells: ‘Fire was essential for ancient hunter-gatherers not only for its warmth, but also for cooking, gatherings, and cremating the dead. Traces of these activities are rarely found at archaeological sites, making it difficult to test how pyrotechnology evolved compared to other cultural traits.’
SPARKS
She is very pleased that she can use the Veni grant to continue the SPARKS project to investigate archaeological deposits from six rockshelter excavations in Malawi. The deposits date from about 30,000 to 2,000 years ago and are particularly rich in fire remnants, including the oldest pyre in Africa.
Unique Opportunity
Schilt: 'Around 20,000 years ago, there was an abrupt decline in the mobility of hunter-gatherers in Central Africa, which provides the unique opportunity to compare the use of fire with other socio-cultural aspects and gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic relationship between pyrotechnology, material culture and mobility.’
'Using microscopic methods, I study the deposits and I can find out, for example, what types of fuel were used, how big and how hot the fire was, and how intensive the fire was used.'
Flora Schilt studied archaeology in Leiden and specialized in geoarchaeology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, where she obtained her PhD in 2022. She then won a Marie Curie fellowship for research at the ICArEHB Research Centre for Archaeology at the University of the Algarve in Faro, Portugal. At VU Amsterdam, she works as a geoarchaeologist at Archaeology, AHA department and at CLUE+
Veni
Veni is a 3-year grant of 320,000 euros for researchers who have recently obtained their PhD. Together with Vidi and Vici, Veni is part of the NWO Talent Programme. Within the Talent Programme, researchers are free to submit their own topic for funding. In this way, NWO stimulates curiosity-driven and innovative research.