The Research Potential of Fire-Cracked Rock in Cooking and Noncooking Contexts

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.

The information potential of fire-cracked rocks (FCR) and their associated features remain surprisingly understudied, given that they are ubiquitous at many sites, often well preserved, are little affected by the activity of collectors, and span hundreds of millennia of the human experience. Whereas FCR preserves well, taphonomic processes often make ephemeral many of the features used to identify fire archaeologically, such as burned faunal and botanical remains. A study of FCR should consider the range of variation in lithic use-alteration and fracturing patterns resulting from cultural interactions, and how they differ from natural processes, such as wildfires. Examination of these variations provides a more comprehensive view of the range of thermal processes that affected stones and fills in gaps in our interpretations of archaeological sites. FCR informs on a range of everyday behaviors, spanning economic (e.g., cooking), social (e.g., body warmth), and ritual (e.g., sweet lodge) spheres. Therefore, the study of FCR holds great potential for archaeological research worldwide and lays the groundwork for future studies in much the same way that ceramic use-alteration and organic residue analyses have contributed so profoundly to our understanding of ancient foodways and everyday life.

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

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35547.0