On Thursday, September 27, please join us for a panel discussion on Archaeological Perspectives on Fire and People: From Ancient Neanderthals to Contemporary California. This timely event brings together experts from UC Berkeley’s Archaeological Research Facility and the US Forest Service in a panel discussion exploring what we can learn from humanity's long experience with fire. Panelists will tackle the diverse and changing impacts of fire on human populations and environments, the ways people have faced the threat of fire, and how they have manipulated fire for power and survival.
The event is free and open to the public.
WHERE: UC Berkeley, Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, September 27, 2018
PANELISTS: Dr. Tim Gill, discussing early prehistoric control and use of fire, and the possibility that fire played a key role in human evolution; Prof. Ruth Tringham (https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/ruth-e-tringham and http://ruthtringham.com/projects/), whose research in prehistoric Southeast Europe shows how fires were intentionally set in houses to perhaps mark the end of a household cycle; Prof. Kent Lightfoot (https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/kent-lightfoot), who will discuss his work on indigenous fire practices in California and what we can learn from them; Dr. Linn Gassaway (http://www.firearchaeology.com/Home.html), a fire archaeologist with the US Forest Service, who will talk about the impacts of fire on archaeological and cultural resources. The panel will be moderated by John Holson (Pacific Legacy, Inc.), who brings expertise from thirty years of cultural resources management work in California and Hawaii.