The same way we stay warm today in our homes, insolation.
Comment on How did living in caves not backfire on cavemen?
shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 8 months agoI’m not saying that doesn’t influence things, but wouldn’t it still be an issue? How would cavepeople stay warm five meters from the place they were trying to stay warm from, especially without fire?
FireTower@lemmy.world 8 months ago
wahming@monyet.cc 8 months ago
Again, you’ve conflated spelunking with living 5 meters from the exit. Firesites are everywhere in archaeology digs, including in caves.
shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I thought when they said don’t light a fire in a cave they meant everywhere in the cave.
PhinaryDivision@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not an expert, but I do have some insights on this. The reason that spelunking doesn’t usually allow fires, even at the entrance, is because the smoke can damage the cave environment. Smoke, especially from things manufactured in a different environment, can contain a lot of wild stuff that interferes wjth an ecosystem. Caves, especially ones big enough for tours, have incredibly unique ecosystems that are ripe for study by biologists.
Additionally, smoke contains unique particles that settle on surfaces. We can study the materials deep in some caves like Mammoth Cave and find evidence of smoke and ash. This is strong evidence for archeologists that ancient people were able to travel deep into this cave.
tl;dr: smoke damages ecosystems and makes archeology difficult. Don’t smoke in a cave.
shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 8 months ago
It isn’t just the smoke though, it’s the heat, as I was explaining here when I got this reply. As an on-site out-observer, that much from all of this I do understand (which formed the basis for what I don’t).