Author Description

This volume offers students and researchers a range of papers that deliberately question some of the traditional views associated with the role of fire. In the past, fire and the hearth usually represented a means of cooking, heat and illumination. Moreover, the evidence of fire and its functionality was relegated to the miscellaneous sections of the archaeological literature. However, it is clear form this volume that the role of fire extends beyond a mere functional one. Fire is meaningful, powerful and supernatural and was integral to the successful development of past societies.