A geophysical analysis of Aboriginal earth mounds in the Murray River Valley, South Australia

Earth mounds are common archaeological features in some regions of Australia, particularly within the Murray-Darling Basin. These features are generally considered to have formed via the repeated use of earth oven cookery methods employed by Aboriginal people during the mid- to late-Holocene. This study assesses the relative effectiveness of key geophysical methods including magnetometry, groundpenetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in mapping, and determining the stratigraphy of earth mound sites. Three earth mounds adjacent to Hunchee Creek, on Calperum Station in South Australia's Riverland region, were chosen to conduct a comparative trial of these methods. This research demonstrated that geophysics can be used to both locate mounds and provide information as to deposit thickness and size. Individual ovens within mounds can also be located. This suggests a greater potential role for geophysics in understanding the Holocene archaeological record in Australia.

Bulbs and Biographies, Pine Nuts and Palimpsests: Exploring Plant Diversity and Earth Oven Reuse at a Late Period Plateau Site

Earth ovens, hearths, and middens are common archaeological features in western North America that contain the residues of everyday activities. Ethnographic and archaeological research indicates these in-ground food preparation features were frequently reused over many months and years. These quotidian features therefore can be productively thought of as having use-lives or biographies. Here we present a framework for interpreting these archaeological food preparation feature biographies and the palimpsest nature of earth oven features. We illustrate the value of this framework through paleoethnobotanical analysis of archived soil samples from a bulk food processing site on the Columbia-Fraser Plateau in northeastern Washington State. While this site and other food preparation sites throughout the Plateau are largely interpreted as remains of intensive geophyte processing, our finds indicate that a wide range of economic plants were processed at this location, indicative of a dynamic and flexible subsistence system. We suggest that residents and visitors to the Pend Oreille Valley from ca. 2700-500 cal BP frequently returned to and reused earth oven features as they processed multiple plant food taxa including nodding onion (Allium cernuum), camas (Camassia quamash) goosefoot chenopod seeds (cf. Chenopodium atrovirens), and pine nuts (Pinus spp.). We see a biographical approach as a potential solution to the common “palimpsest problem” and suggest this framework may be a fruitful way of investigating multiple food preparation recipes, methods, and events, as well as adding paleoenvironmental datasets to biographical or life-history archaeological rhetoric.

SLAVIC «COOK ROOMS» FROM THE SETTLEMENT ROVANTSI — HNIDAVSKA HIRKA IN VOLYN

In 2009 during the excavations at the multi-layered settlement of Rovantsi — Hnidavska Hirka near Lutsk in the excavation area 10 the dwellings and household buildings of the Slavic period have been discovered. To the horizon of the tenth century three houses and the building with three earth ovens were attributed. The stratigraphy of the filling of this building (object 3) indicates that the earth ovens were not operating at the same time. Three successive horizons are observed in this structure. The first site was a grain pit which was discovered at the bottom of the building. This pit was covered by two rammed floors, sagged into it. The analysis of ceramics made it possible to connect one house (object 18) with the first horizon of object 3 and the other house (object 16) with the third horizon of object 3. In the ovens of these houses there were fragments of pots, glued to the fragments of pots from the corresponding horizons of object 3. This building is interpreted as the room for cooking. The horizon of the 12th — the first half of the 13th century includes the structure with two clay ovens, pit-cellar, small rectangular building and the ditch that surrounded these objects. This ditch was obviously the part of fence, and the gap in it was the pass. The complex of this ditch also includes two ground fires, located in the pass in one line with the ditch. It has been suggested that the building with large clay oven which was discovered in 2010 in a nearby excavation 12 (object 12 / Ex. 12), is the same cook room. Obviously, it reflects certain stage in development of such buildings, namely the stop of the use of fast-destroying earth ovens and the transition to the construction of large clay ovens. This is evidenced by the following facts: this building is different in shape from all other houses of the 10th century; it is located at the site of the previous building with earth oven; the oven in it had too large sizes relative to other ovens from the houses of the 10th century. The results of the excavations at Hnidavka Hirka help to reject the version that such structures were the manufactories and to consider them not «mini-factories-bakeries» but only the kitchens with one oven in each individual farm.

Pemanfaatan Tumbuhan Diwoka (Piper Macropiper Pennant) oleh Suku Dani, Wamena

Ethnobotanical and taxonomical studies are conducted to uncover the scientific name, uses as well as utilization of Diwoka (local name) popular to the Dani people in Wamena. The local name, Diwoka, is determined by its scientific name Piper macropiper Pennant. Piper macropiper has been used by the Dani people to serve as spices when foods are cooked traditionally by stone-fired earth oven (bakarbatu) or prepared in other ways such as stir-frying vegetables, fish, and meat. The leaves can be consumed uncooked the way salad is consumed beside it is functioned as medicine as well. The distribution of this type of plant is found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Australia (Northern territory), Brunei, and Sri Lanka

USE-ALTERATION ANALYSIS OF FIRE-CRACKED ROCKS

Although it is now commonplace for archaeologists to study use-alteration patterns on ceramics, the same cannot be said of one of the most ubiquitous classes of hunter-gatherer artifacts, fire-cracked rocks (FCR). It can be shown, however, that many of the same methods and theories applied to the study of cooking ceramics are also relevant to the investigation of rocks used as heating elements. Because use alteration analyses of FCR are so scarce, I describe a range of attributes with the goal of helping researchers identify use alterations (e.g., sooting, reddening, various fracturing patterns) on lithic artifacts from sites worldwide and evaluate their potential function in various cultural practices. These attributes are also outlined in order to create a standardized terminology for describing FCR use-alteration patterns. I discuss my analysis of FCR from three Late Archaic sites (Duck Lake, 913, and 914) on Grand Island in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, followed by an interpretation of their cooking contexts, as a case study. The results indicate great intersite variability among FCR characteristics, cooking methods, and cooking facilities (earth oven, stone boiling, and rock griddle). This use alteration analysis can be applied in archaeological contexts worldwide where similar materials are recovered.

Te Kooti's Slow-Cooking Earth Oven Prophecy: A Patuheuheu account and a new transformative leadership theory

The French philosopher Michel Foucault stated: “I don't write a book so that it will be the final word; I write a book so that other books are possible, not necessarily written by me” (cited in O’Farrell, 2005, p. 9). In the same vein, I offer this book, not as a final word, but as a stepping stone for others. He ihu hūpē ahau1 - I am inexperienced in the ways of this world, and therefore I can write only from my particular Patuheuheu perspective and positioning within this book. This work is the culmination of my interest in the past, present and future of Patuheuheu. It is based on my interpretations, which are ultimately shaped by the whakapapa2 and life experiences that form the cultural lenses and filters that determine the way in which the research for this book was conducted.

Experimental analysis of fire-cracked rocks from varied use contexts

This experimental study of fire-cracked rocks sought to determine if varied rock fracture attributes could be correlated with specific past uses of heated stones. A total of 864 rocks were heated in 41 fires that replicated hearth, stone boiling, sweat lodge, and earth oven uses of quartz, quartzite, and sandstone cobbles as heating elements. Analysis of experimental results considered three fire-cracked rock attributes (fracture rate, fragment type, and fragment shape) which can be correlated with some of the specific uses of rocks as heating elements. These attributes can be applied to fire-cracked rock assemblages from archaeological contexts to determine their past uses with relatively consistent results as long as the archaeological context of the fire-cracked rocks is carefully considered.