Distinguishing colour alteration processes occurred in Late Pleistocene animal remains.

The study of the usage of fire in a prehistorical group of hominids is extremely important because it outlines and sheds light on their social-economical behaviours. For this reason, studying burned specimens is interesting to identify some of the activities conducted by the inhabitants of that particular the site. Although colour changes associated with material heating may provide a first indication of a pyrotechnological process, the conclusions may sometimes be misleading. With the present paper we propose the study of animal bones from the late Mousterian-Aurignatian archaeological site of Riparo Mochi (Ventimiglia, Italy) with the deliberate aim to identify burned specimens. The approach is based on a combination of FTIR-ATR and SEM-EDXS analyses, providing a comprehensive picture of the molecular and microstructural modifications brought about by the thermal treatments, rather than by the natural diagenesis.