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Remains of earth ovens with rock heating elements of various sizes and configurations are common at hunter-gatherer sites around the world. They span the last 30,000 years in the Old World and some 10,000 years in the New World. Although various foods were baked in these ovens, plants predominate. Earth ovens are ethnographically well documented as family-size and bulk cooking facilities, but related technology and its archaeological signatures remain poorly understood and understudied. These ubiquitous features are often mischaracterized as generic cooking facilities termed hearths. It is proposed that, in fact, most rock “hearths” are heating elements of earth ovens. Reliable identification and interpretation of earth ovens requires documentation of heating elements, pit structure, rock linings, and various remnants thereof. Fundamental technological concepts for investigating their archaeological signatures include thermodynamics, construction designs, and life cycles in systemic context, as informed by ethnographic, archaeological, and experimental data. Earth oven technology explains well the primary purpose of labor-intensive thermal storage for long-term cooking and conserving fuel. Information from the extensive archaeological record of earth ovens on the Edwards Plateau of south-central North America illustrates these points.

In regions on the margins of the Great Plains grasslands, documenting the intermittent history of bison exploitation has presented challenges to archeologists. Chronologies based on archeological associations have long been useful in regional research, but can be imprecise and of inadequate resolution for constructing precise sequences of prehistoric events. Here, we present a record of directly dated bison from archeological contexts spanning the last 6000 years on the very southern extent of the Great Plains. This study includes 61 specimens from archeological contexts that were dated by XAD purified AMS radiocarbon, with reported errors of only 15-20 14C years for most dates. The resulting record of bison exploitation for this area defines four main periods (Calf Creek, Late Archaic 1 and 2, and early Toyah) during which bison were exploited. Several dates also indicate an early historic presence of bison; this period may represent a late facet of the Toyah horizon. This study adds significant chronological resolution to the regional record of bison in parts of Texas and begins to help correlate cultural chronologies with important climatic data. It also points to the research value of obtaining additional directly dated bison samples from temporally and geographically diverse archeological contexts in our study area and beyond.

Mapping is a critical aspect of systematic documentation no matter where archaeologists work. From hand-drawn maps of excavation units to maps created with Total Data Stations or LiDAR scanning, today’s archaeologists have a suite of mapping techniques and technologies to choose from when documenting a site. Typically, spectacular sites often receive high resolution mapping, whereas everyday sites rarely do. Recently, however, a revolutionary technology and technique has been created that can produce highly accurate and precise three-dimensional maps and orthophotos of archaeological sites, features, and profiles at a fraction of the cost and time of LiDAR and intensive TDS mapping: Structure from Motion (SfM). SfM is a new digital photography processing technique for capturing highly detailed, three-dimensional (3D) data from almost any surface using digital cameras. This article introduces the various platforms SfM photographs can be collected from (UAV, kites, balloons, poles, and groundbased) and provides examples of different types of data SfM can provide. The Structure from Motion Revolution is unfolding across the globe at a rapid pace, and we encourage archaeologists to take advantage of this new recording method.