Burnt ant nests and their parallels with Mesolithic charcoal-rich pits: A comment on Huisman et al. (2024)

Abstract

This short paper provides arguments against Huisman et al.’s (2024) conclusion that Mesolithic “pit-hearths” are definitely anthropogenic in origin. We believe that this conclusion is insufficiently supported by the presented data and the size of the study, which is limited to two recent ant nests. The main problem resides in the assumption that Humus-iron Podzols pre-date the construction of “pit-hearths” and ant nests contain only little organic remains that are vulnerable to forest fires. In this comment paper we present arguments to the contrary.