"----we cannot escape the evident fact that Polynesian material culture was never based on pottery-making. It was, from the earliest stage of the Maori-Polynesian departure into the ocean, based on and typified by a stone-lined earth oven, in which food was baked between heated stones, as a substitute for cooking in waterproof earthenware."--------1952, Thor Heyerdahl, "American Indians In The Pacific." p. 40.
     "Sometime before 200 A.D. a new wave of invaders from Southeast Asia appears to have arrived in the western Pacific. This seafaring aristocracy introduced earth ovens and well-digging which reduced the need for pottery."----2000, Brij V Lal & Kate Fortune, "The Pacific Islands, An Encyclopedia," p. 133.
    "Liquids were also boiled or heated by plunging a hot stone into them."---------2000, Brij V Lal & Kate Fortune, "The Pacific Islands, An Encyclopedia," p. 441.
    "The methods of cooking  among the meat eating tribes were, in order of importance, broiling, roasting, boiling, the last named process often being that known as "stone boiling."------1912, Frederick Webb Hodge, "Handbook Of American Indians North Of Mexico, (Smithsonian publication)," p. 468.
    "Cooking stone--Any stone heated for a long time or several times by being place in water or stew in order to convey heat to the water or stew."----2007, Barbara Ann Kipfer, "Dictionary Of Artifacts," p. 80.
    "Poverty point objects functioned as the heating element for earth ovens."----1983, Dan F. Morse & Phyllis A. Morse, "Archaeology Of The Central Mississippi Valley," p. 125.
     "It (clay) was also used to produce the diagnostic "poverty point objects," masses of various shapes, about fist size, apparently used in place of rock in hot-stone cooking in pits."----1990, John A. Walthall, "Prehistoric Indians Of The Southeast, Archaeology Of Alabama And The Middle South," p. 86.
   "The wide valley floor of the lower Mississippi has very little rock; and people who wished to use the technique of "stone boiling" had to make their own "stones" out of clay in order to cook their food."----1978, Jesse D. Jennings, "Ancient Native Americans," p. 297.

 
COOKING STONES & EARTH OVENS
32,000 YEARS AGO TO PRESENT DAY
WORLDWIDE

     Cooking stones are very simple tools. They may be compared to hammer stones and unmodified utilized flakes in their simplicity. Although they aren't pretty to look at, they do represent a unique tool form. People around the world have used them for tens of thousands of years. In fact, they are one of the oldest stone tool types that have been used by modern humans.

     The earliest use of heated stones in earth ovens are reported from Europe and Japan as early as 32,000 years ago. They are reported to be 20,000 years old in the Middle East. The earliest use in North America date to the Archaic period between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago.

     Hot stones have been used to cook food in earth ovens, steaming pits, in container stone boiling, and open-air griddle cooking. Earth ovens are one of the more common techniques that involves baking the food in covered pits below ground. Sometimes an additional fire was added on top. Steam-pit cooking was also done below ground in grass-lined and grass covered pits where water could be poured for additional steam. Cooking stones were also used above ground for open-air grilling over hot stones. Another cooking process, called stone boiling, involves placing hot stones in bark-lined pits, baskets or any other container to heat liquids.

    Archaeologists use the term "carbohydrate revolution" in reference to a major diet change during the Archaic period in North America's southern Plains and southeastern Woodlands between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago. The best evidence of this change are fire cracked rocks that were used in earth ovens for the purpose of baking-plants. People began eating a diet of insulin-rich root foods such as onions, camas, agave and sotol. These types of foods required a prolonged cooking period that earth ovens could provide.

    Earth ovens vary in size. In North America, they can range in size from about three feet across to nine feet. The many pieces of fire cracked stones that have been found in them can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds.

    The best cooking stones are made of dense homogeneous rocks. Basalt and some types of volcanic rocks can make good cooking stones. Some stones wear out sooner from thermochemical heat weathering and begin to lose their ability to hold heat with each cycle of heating.  The stones eventually have to be replaced with new stones.

    It's interesting to note that all stones can not be heated to cook food. A good example of this can be seen in fireplaces that have been built, by mistake, from stones that fracture when heated like chert, flint, chalcedony, etc. The first time they are fired up the stones fracture and send pieces flying making the fireplace useless.

    Cooking stones have been found that weigh over 30 pounds. But a standard size seems to be about twice the size of a man's fist. Larger stones are reported to be about 3 to 4 inches thick and 12 inches across.

    The process of heating cooking stones and the building of an earth oven are illustrated in this report by people of the Dani tribe in West Papua. A fair amount of labor is involved. A fire to heat the stones is started with a fire thong. Then a pit is dug and lined with grass. The heated stones are transported to the pit with wooden sticks. Then food is added by Women who put in the yams and by men who bring the pig meat. The pit is covered with a large bundle of grass and left to cook for one or two hours.

    The use of earth ovens were guided, in some ways, by local resources. In areas where there was no clay to make ceramic cooking pots, like islands in the Pacific, earth ovens were commonly used to cook food. Another example can be found in the southeastern U.S. where cooking stones were not readily available. In their place, fire hardened clay balls, called Poverty Points, were used instead.

    Poverty Points were named after the Poverty Point site in northeastern Louisiana and the late Archaic culture by the same name. These people are famous for using clay balls, that were made in several different shapes, to cook food. The clay balls were heated and as many as 200 were used in earth ovens to cook food.

     Earth oven cooking stones have been used all over the world and date to nearly the beginning of modern humans in Europe. The fact that they have been in use non-stop for 32,000 years makes them one of the longest continuously used stone tool types by modern humans.

"REFERENCES"

1912, Hodge, Frederick Webb, "Handbook Of American Indians North Of Mexico, (Smithsonian publication)."
1952, Heyerdahl, Thor, "American Indians In The Pacific."
1978, Jennings, Jesse D., "Ancient Native Americans."
1983, Morse, Dan F., & Morse, Phyllis A., "Archaeology Of The Central Mississippi Valley."
1990, Walthall, John A., "Prehistoric Indians Of The Southeast, Archaeology Of Alabama And The Middle South."
2000, Lal,  Brij V & Fortune, Kate, "The Pacific Islands, An Encyclopedia."
2007, Kipfer, Barbara Ann "Dictionary Of Artifacts."
2007, Graham, Dale, "Fire-Cracked Rocks And The Carbohydrate Revolution," Mammoth Trumpet, Vol. 22, No., 1.
2008, Thoms, V. Alston, "Ancient Savannah Roots Of The Carbohydrate Revolution In South-Central North America," Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 53, No. 205.

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