Fire on the Mountain: The Use of Earth Ovens for Agave and Pinyon Processing in the Sheep Range, NV

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Hot-rock technology was an integral aspect of prehistoric life in modern day southern Nevada. The utility of earth oven use is exemplified in the Sheep Range, located 20 miles north of Las Vegas, where more than 200 earth oven facilities have been documented across six vegetative communities. A variety of plant foods were baked throughout the year across this significant landscape, such as agave in the winter-spring, as well as yuccas and green pinyon cones in the late summer to early fall. This paper presents ongoing research of roasting pits (earth ovens) within the Sheep Range, including measurement data indicating more frequent re-use of cooking sites at higher elevations, in addition to new survey data detailing the importance of hot-rock cooking for green-cone pinyon processing.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24480