Assigning Context to Artifacts in Burned-Rock Middens

Abstract

Accumulations office-cracked rock and carbon-stained sediment in pits mark locations of past cooking and heating facilities around the world. While the specific functions of these features may vary, the use of stones as heating elements in earth ovens is common. After repeated use, debris in the form of fire-cracked stones, charcoal, ash, sediment, carbonized plant fragments, and other materials accumulates to form low mounds known in the U.S. Southern Plains and the Southwest as burned-rock middens. The middens may include artifacts some introduced inadvertently with sediment used to form an earthen cap to seal the pit oven. The sediment and included artifacts for this insulating cap may be borrowed from other parts of the site. After the cooking is complete, the earthen cap is peeled open and all materials redistributed by trampling and slope wash. Artifacts and other materials in burned-rock middens, therefore, may not represent discrete events or periods directly associated with use of the ovens.