ABSTRACT
Occasional fragments of wood charcoal were scattered through the preceramic refuse at Guila Naquitz. Two kinds of samples were drawn from these fragments: specimens for radiocarbon dating and specimens used to determine the woods preferred as fuels by the cave occupants. In terms of good context and quantity, first priority went to selecting radiocarbon samples; but some squares had enough charcoal so that both purposes could be served. The occupants of the cave were eclectic in their use of firewood: Pine, oak, black walnut, mesquite, acacia and other legume trees all went into the hearth, and it was not uncommon for a charcoal scatter to include from two to five genera of wood. Between 8000 and 6000 b.c., the Indians of the Valley of Oaxaca evidently considered a wide variety of woody genera to be acceptable firewood. By 1000 b.c. they had setded on pine as the strongly preferred culinary fuel and, in retrospect, this change had serious environmental consequences.
