Hunter-Gatherer Earth Ovens in the Archaeological Record: Fundamental Concepts

Abstract

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.

Prehistoric earth oven facilities and the pathoecology of Chagas disease in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

“…BRMs are the accumulated surviving remains of countless earth ovens, hence they represent earth oven facilities (Black andThoms, 2014 andWandsnider, 1997). An individual earth oven is a pit excavated into the ground and fired with wood.…”

“…A plant lining called "packing" is placed on the hot rocks. Food to be cooked is placed on the lining and covered with more packing and earth (Black and Thoms, 2014). The food cooks in the oven for periods of time ranging from hours to days.…”

“…They returned to take advantage of the accumulated rocks to make more earth ovens (Black et al, 1997, Black and Thoms, 2014and Wandsnider, 1997. For each firing of an earth oven, a large amount of waste was produced in the form of cracked rock, fiber from the cooked plants, ash, and trash from other human activities.…”

Chemical profiling of ancient hearths reveals recurrent salmon use in Ice Age Beringia

“…Analyses of hearth sediments can inform us about mobility, subsistence behaviors, and activity areas of hunter-gatherer societies (11,12). Recent analyses of burned residues in hearths have demonstrated their value for exploring associated food use; however, these investigations have focused on examining the use of animal bone and marine animal blubber for fuel and lighting at locations proximal to coastal environments (13)(14)(15).…”

Anchoring the landscape: human utilization of the Cerro Gavilán 2 rockshelter, Middle Orinoco, from the Early Holocene to the present

“…Carbonized bone fragments, seeds, and other charred material are abundant in the darker strata. Our test pit penetrated sediments of what can at least tentatively be described as a cooking-related or fire-related context, possible corresponding to an earth oven, as revealed in the deep deposit of alternating layers of white and dark grey ash and clear brown oxidized soils associated with cobbles and other rocks (Black;Thorns, 2014). Looter pits expose similar layers of charcoal and ash deposits associated with organic remains and artifacts throughout the mounded sediment that occupies nearly two thirds of the cave surface area, suggesting that extensive burning practices were frequent in the cave.…”