Prehispanic fuel management in the Canary Islands: A new experimental dataset for interpreting Pinus canariensis micromorphological degradation patterns on archeological charcoal

Abstract At Prehispanic sites of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd–15th centuries CE), fuel gathering strategies have traditionally been interpreted as the result of a taxonomic selection based on the physical properties of each woody species, while little attention has been paid to other criteria such as the soundness of the wood used, a parameter which could have significantly weighed on indigenous firewood selection, hearth functions and supply areas. To explore this possibility, we created a new experimental dataset of microscopic decay features in charcoal of Pinus canariensis, one of the most valued Prehispanic fuels. Following a previous experimental protocol, our results confirm the correlation between the macroscopic and microscopic state of the wood, with a gradual trend from healthy to rotten according to varying proportions of low to high micromorphological alteration features within each charcoal assemblage. It now becomes possible to assess the state of the wood ante combustion on archeological samples as a marker of fuel gathering strategies. New experimental results were also obtained regarding charcoal vitrification, although the origin of this phenomenon remains unclear. High proportions of vitrified fragments found in a batch composed of resinous heartwood (pitch wood) with highly degraded sapwood raise the hypothesis of a possible relationship between vitrification and the combustion of high resin contents.