This project focuses on methods of investigating cremation in the archaeological record and is the first crucial stage in the development of new scientific methods exploring the historical use of fire as a means of transforming the body. Broadening both our understanding of past pyrotechnology and past cosmologies, our research will challenge the view that cremation is a limited resource for historical study. Pioneering the development of a geothermometer for archaeological purposes, this is a novel and interdisciplinary approach, employing geophysical techniques and theory to a social science question, with the ultimate aim of generating baseline data to enable attained temperature during the cremation process to be ‘read’ from the human bones. This enables reconstruction of the original body placement on the funerary pyre and provides information on fuel sources and duration of thermal events. The results will have wider implications for narratives around fire-use in the past.