Archaeomagnetic Directional Studies as a Tool for Understanding Feature Form and Function: A Case Study of Two Burned Rock Features in a Multicomponent Site in East Texas, USA

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Fire-Cracked Rock: Research in Cooking and Noncooking Contexts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Directional archaeomagnetic techniques were used to propose use-history models for two burned rock features at archaeological site 41AN162, in Anderson County, Texas, USA. While common in the region, such burned rock features are rarely associated with cultural artifacts that indicate their function. Archaeologists have debated how these features are related to human behavior in their creation, use, and abandonment. Archaeomagnetic studies can be employed to shed light on these questions. Thirteen oriented rocks were collected from two features. The rocks of Feature 5 were thoroughly heated and the vector results of the rock surfaces and interiors show a north and down direction nearly parallel to the expected field for the locality, implying that the rocks of the feature have remained substantially in situ since the feature’s last significant heat exposure. Preserved magnetic remanences of the Feature 16 rocks were severely overprinted and have within-rock magnetic qualities that suggest reuse and lower temperature of use. The magnetic inclination data and archaeological context suggest that the rocks may have been heated as part of a covering layer rather than as a pit lining, while the declination orientations suggest the covering layer was removed to expose the target of the heating event.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Fire-Cracked Rock: Research in Cooking and Noncooking Contexts

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36873.0