ABSTRACT Prehistoric fuel management and hearth functions are key research issues that have benefitted from the development of experimental and ethnoarchaeogical approaches aimed at providing interpretative models for archaeological fire and fuel studies. In this paper, we present a selection of ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical data mostly collected among Evenks and Athabascans of East Siberia and North America. Our aim is to question and discuss the relationship between fuel and hearth functions from an ethnoarchaeobotanical perspective: what are the criteria for selecting plant fuels? How archaeologically visible can these diverse fuel types be and what do they tell us about past fire-related activities? Our data shows that the contents of combustion structures result from multiple people-environment interactions at different levels, few of which are accessible to the archaeologist. Nevertheless, ethnoarchaeology, by fostering a reflection on taphonomy issues in the broad sense, actively contributes to methodological developments leading to a better understanding of complex technical fire-related processes.

中文翻译：

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北方森林燃料使用的民族考古学：更好地描述史前与火灾有关的活动

摘要史前燃料管理和炉膛功能是关键研究问题，受益于实验和民族考古学方法的发展，旨在为考古火灾和燃料研究提供解释模型。在本文中，我们展示了一些主要在东西伯利亚和北美的鄂温克人和阿萨巴斯卡人中收集的民族志、民族考古学和民族历史数据。我们的目的是从民族古植物学的角度质疑和讨论燃料和壁炉功能之间的关系：选择植物燃料的标准是什么？这些不同的燃料类型在考古上的可见性如何？它们告诉我们关于过去与火灾有关的活动的什么信息？我们的数据显示，燃烧结构的内容来自不同层次的多种人与环境的相互作用，其中很少有考古学家可以访问。尽管如此，民族考古学通过促进对广泛意义上的埋藏学问题的反思，积极促进方法论的发展，从而更好地理解复杂的技术火灾相关过程。