Tutorial:Charcoal Flecking

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Charcoal Flecking
Charcoal in soils can be evidence of fires in woody vegetation. It remains in soil after fires as it is resistent to decay and chemical degradation. Fires are most common in soils and vegetation of seasonally dry climates including swamps, which can experience a season dry enough for forest fires that introduces charcoal into the peat. The study of wood charcoals can offer useful insights into localised vegetation changes which complement those provided by pollen analysis. The dating of Holocene sites can often be done by sending the charcoal from soils to a radiocarbon laboratory for analysis.

On archaeological sites plant fossils are often found in the form of charred seeds or wood charcoal, which offers a direct indication of the plant resources exploited by former human communities. The charcoal is often derived from firewood in fire places, hearths, furnaces or charcoal kilns but may also come from wooden structures, furniture and implements burnt at some point in a site's history.