Content area
Full Text
Although it is now commonplace for archaeologists to study use-alteration patterns on ceramics (e.g., Skibo 1992, 2013; Vieugué 2014; Wilson and Rodning 2002), the same cannot be said of one of the most ubiquitous classes of hunter-gatherer artifacts, fire-cracked rocks (FCR). However, many of the same methods and theories applied to the study of cooking ceramics are also relevant to the investigation of rocks as heating elements. Like cooking vessels, rocks exposed to heat display visible and recognizable use-alteration attributes. I discuss these attributes here to assist researchers in the identification of use-alteration patterns on FCR and to create a standardized terminology to describe them.
In this article, I first define FCR and review the different performance characteristics of rocks as various types of heating elements. Because use alteration analyses of FCR are scarce, I describe the thermal processes that affect stone and a range of physical signatures that are useful in the identification of FCR use-alteration patterns. I discuss as a case study my analysis of FCR from three Late Archaic period (5000–2000 BP) sites on Grand Island, Michigan: Duck Lake (FS09-10-03-1056/20AR580), 913 (FS09-10-03-913/20AR386), and 914 (FS09-10-03-914/20AR387).
A few unidentifiable and highly deteriorated calcined animal bones (<0.1 g) were recovered at Duck Lake, but none were identified at Sites 913 and 914. Organic remains are poorly preserved in the region, making the study of foodways a difficult endeavor using traditional approaches. However, FCR is found in abundance in Grand Island sites, and by creating a framework for its analysis, this article demonstrates that FCR provides an alternative means of investigating ancient food processing technologies. After considering multiple lines of evidence, I conclude that FCR recovered at Site 913 primarily constitute by-products of the stone boiling technique; meanwhile, FCR at Site 914 resulted primarily from the baking of foods in an earth oven feature, and FCR at Duck Lake was predominantly a by-product of open-air dry roasting facilities such as rock griddles.
Others have conducted experimental studies of FCR (e.g., Black et al. 1997; Jackson 1998; Lovick 1983; Petraglia 2002; Schalk and Meatte 1988; Thoms 1986, 1989, 2003, 2009; Wilson and VanDerwarker 2015), yet the most common archaeological reporting is limited to basic counts or presence/absence. The current study contributes a new appreciation of...