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A collaborative agenda for archaeology and fire science

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 835–839 (2022)Cite this article

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Humans have influenced global fire activity for millennia and will continue to do so into the future. Given the long-term interaction between humans and fire, we propose a collaborative research agenda linking archaeology and fire science that emphasizes the socioecological histories and consequences of anthropogenic fire in the development of fire management strategies today.

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Fig. 1: Connecting archaeology and fire science.

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Acknowledgements

This contribution developed from a forum entitled ‘Archaeological approaches to anthropogenic fire and global pyrodiversity’ held during the 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA). We are grateful to the SAA organizers for the opportunity to assemble an extensive group of archaeological researchers and practitioners. We also thank R. Baisden for her comments on an earlier draft. Additionally, G.S. was supported in part by an appointment to the United States Forest Service (USFS) Research Participation Program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) through an interagency agreement between the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). ORISE is managed by ORAU under DOE contract number DE-SC0014664. All opinions expressed in this paper are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the policies and views of USDA, DOE or ORAU/ORISE. Any use of trade, product or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. S.Y.M. acknowledges funding from the European Commission (Marie Curie Fellowship 792197).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Forest Disturbance Science, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Athens, GA, USA

    Grant Snitker

  2. Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    Grant Snitker

  3. Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA

    Christopher I. Roos

  4. Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Alan P. Sullivan III

  5. Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany

    S. Yoshi Maezumi

  6. Department of Ecosystem and Landscape Dynamics, Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    S. Yoshi Maezumi

  7. Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Douglas W. Bird

  8. Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Michael R. Coughlan

  9. Historical Research Associates, Inc, Portland, OR, USA

    Kelly M. Derr

  10. USDA Forest Service, Lassen National Forest, Susanville, CA, USA

    Linn Gassaway

  11. Department of Geography, California State University Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson

  12. US Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK, USA

    Rachel A. Loehman

Authors
  1. Grant Snitker
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  2. Christopher I. Roos
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  3. Alan P. Sullivan III
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  4. S. Yoshi Maezumi
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  5. Douglas W. Bird
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  6. Michael R. Coughlan
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  7. Kelly M. Derr
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  8. Linn Gassaway
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  9. Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson
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  10. Rachel A. Loehman
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Contributions

This Comment was conceptualized by G.S., C.I.R., A.P.S., S.Y.M., D.W.B., M.R.C., K.M.D. and A.K.P. G.S. wrote the original draft; G.S., C.I.R., A.P.S., S.Y.M., D.W.B., M.R.C., K.M.D., L.G., A.K.P. and R.A.L. contributed to review and editing. Visualizations were generated by S.Y.M. and M.R.C.

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Correspondence to Grant Snitker.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Snitker, G., Roos, C.I., Sullivan, A.P. et al. A collaborative agenda for archaeology and fire science. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 835–839 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01759-2

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