🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥

Archaeology postdoc @LeidenArchaeo. Burning desire to know more about #fire use/making by #Palaeolithic peoples. #Pyroarchaeology Also grants guy @ESSB_Erasmus

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

**SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT**

My @UniversiteitNL talk about #Neanderthal #fire-making is now online for your viewing enjoyment! Check it out here: https://t.co/bu12s7ABAH

#ShamelessSelfpromoMonday #archaeology #evolution @LeidenArchaeo @UniLeiden @pyroarchaeology

[Chris Stringer @ChrisStringer65]

Oldest evidence of fire-lighting comes from early humans in Britain https://t.co/ALsbnC4D66

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

The moment the earliest known man-made fire was uncovered - BBC News https://t.co/CjA2dNmFZK

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

This could be the oldest evidence of fire-making | National Geographic https://t.co/gFw4tz8fV6

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

Neandertals mastered fire-making tools 400,000 years ago https://t.co/8vMV23SUKK

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

🚨New paper alert!🚨
Earliest known instance of pyrite ca. 400 kya at Barnham (UK), in layers with strong evidence of fire use, in an area with no naturally occurring pyrite nodules, together strongly suggest these pre-Neandertal peoples were making fire!
https://t.co/xnSYhqyltj

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@RalphHassall @Graham__Hancock The most telling signs would be:
1. Geopolymer binder (amorphous/isotropic) looks different from natural calcite cement.
2. Lack of interlocking grain contacts; natural diagenetic features, stratification, and fossil orientation.
3. Unnatural distribution/size of voids.

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@RalphHassall @Graham__Hancock Could ancient Egyptians do this? Sure, they were smart. Did they? Maybe to a limited degree, I don't really know. For ALL the blocks? I'm skeptical but happy to be proven wrong. Could geologists (now and in the future) tell the difference? I'm thin section, almost certainly!

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@RalphHassall @Graham__Hancock Probably easier, cheaper, and safer (easy to break) to send samples to a petrographic thin section preparation service (Google it), rather than buy a couple of rock saws, epoxy, glass slides, polishing equipment, etc. You'll also need a petrographic 🔬 to look at them properly.

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@YumiBod @Graham__Hancock U-Pb dating of inclusions, electron spin resonance (ESR), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Assuming quartz crystals would actually form under these conditions (unlikely), any these dating methods should be able to distinguish between modern and ancient quartz.

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@Graham__Hancock Any geologist worth their salt (teehee, natron...salt...get it? 🤭) could tell the difference between real stone and artificial stone 💁

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@Graham__Hancock Easy to prove: Make a thin section of a piece a stone you think is artificial and stick it under a petrographic microscope using cross polarized light. Turning the stage, quartz alternates black/gray/white (anisotropic), while amorphous glass will always appear black (isotropic).

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@flyfin588445 @Graham__Hancock Weak stress birefringence in (hardened) glass can appear as a patchy pattern of bright or colored areas, often concentrated near edges, but since it's amorphous (i.e., no crystals), it will not exhibit the clean, systematic extinction typical of anisotropic minerals like quartz.

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@FlintDibble @kurtmetzger @joerogan Yours is a strange existence, Flint 😵‍💫 Probably not what you signed up for 😅

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

Please sign the #petition against giant budget cuts to #HigherEducation in The #Netherlands! #academia #research https://t.co/xd7qDjBIPy

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@MW_hominin's winning smile is featuring very prominently between talks at #ESHE2024 😁😁😁

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

@PCI_Archaeology Wasn't expecting it to end up in publishing limbo, but lesson learned 😅

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

🔥🚨#NewPaperAlert!🚨🔥

After being buried on the editor's desk for over a year, my manuscript on experimentally testing the utility of manganese dioxide powder as a #fire-starting aid has seen the light of day! 😅 #Neanderthals #archeology https://t.co/L2oXwzIGXZ

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

D'oh!😖
*hold the line
😒

[🔥Andrew Sorensen🔥 @Pyropithecus]

This is a fun read 😁 Way to not only only the line, but gain back some ground for #archaeology, @FlintDibble! 💪