Cooking Stones/Fire Rock

[old digger]

Out here in the northern plains a sure sign of a prehistoric camp site is ''Fire rock''. The rocks are always river cobbles that are orange to red in color, and are usually scattered in a small area. You can find these ''fire rock'' sometimes miles from the nearest river source where they were collected.

My understanding is that these rocks were heated up first in the fire and then were put with the food that was to be eaten. Literally the opposite the way we normally cook these days. In other words you would put the fire on your food.

Other sites, these ''fire rock'' were used in a sweat-lodge ceremony.

At this time I only have one example of one of these rocks, but you can see that these rocks were heated quite hot and are still red.

 

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[RGINN]

Interesting area of study about 'fire rocks'. These are boiling stones. They would heat the rock up and drop it into a pot to bring the contents to a boil, repeat as necessary. You can tell when a rock has been exposed to heat, but hard to say if it was used in cooking as most hearths were stone lined. If it's from a time period and area where agriculture was more dominant and they didn't have a lot of stone pottery you could expect to find them. Through all eras rocks would be heated and used in sweat lodges, but these would usually be larger than boiling stones. Not all rocks worked for boiling stones, either, and maybe it was trial and error figurin out which ones wouldn't explode when exposed to heat. (If you decide to experiment and try stone boiling, basalt works the best.) Just my observations, which might be completely off the mark.

 

[Rege-PA]

You can boil water in a wooden bowl by using heated rocks, so one would think that they were in use more before pottery.

 

[unclemac]

baskets too....in the west anyways, they cooked in water tight baskets.

 

[old digger]

I often wonder what their food tasted like, but I think I would have stayed with cooked meat on a stick. lol!

 

[unclemac]

good question...but you gotta figure they knew how to cook meat and what the best cuts were...isn't BBQ a native Carib tradition or something like that? And the salmon would have been first rate too! I do wonder how much and what kinds of seasonings there were, even salt and how it was used or if it was used. Grits or masa or any ground corn product can be pretty plain. I also have always wondered about the chile/cocoa the meso-Americans drank...just what was THAT like, they loved it so much that the cocoa beans were traded like money.

 

[Jon Stewart]

In the S.W. we would find a lot of broken rock scattered about in an area which leads one to believe that was a camp site. Rock tends to shatter if wet when put around a fire ring and it gets hot. Plus rock has a look to it when it has been heat treated.

 

[rock]

Now that's a good post. I have been finding red quartzite rocks in the fields and always wondered why they were there. I thought they were springs that had dried up now I know. I always find artifacts near them. If I see one I slow down and look closer.

 

[old digger]

That's right rock, whenever you come across ''fire rock'' you are most assured that there was a camp site there.

 

[oldroy75]

In West Texas, I find gray limestone and always look close. In some of the newer fields, these are still almost in circles. I also find the roundish rocks, and a lot of them show signs of being used for grinding stones.
seem to find all kinds of tools in these areas. limestone is found all over, but once they are gray, I know they have been used around a fire......... mostly find em away from where it is normally
are found.................

 

[curious kat]

Very good post old digger, didn't know about "fire rocks" really. Wonder why they're usually those colors? I'll bet just having "any" food back then tasted pretty good.

 

[rock]

Just think how many animals were around back then verses humans. Very few humans means a lot of animals.

 

[unclemac]

Just think how many animals were around back then verses humans. Very few humans means a lot of animals.

odd thought, got me to thinking... the other day I was driving down the 101 right out of Astoria OR. I was going through an area that had houses right up next to the hi-way and farms in the distance behind them. You know what I am talking about, not rural but not city neither. It was raining hard and as I was headed south, low and behold, right smack in a row of houses was a herd of 50 or so elk bedded down in this guys front yard...right next to the hi-way, right outside his front door. I actually see herds of elk all the time but usually not so comfortable sharing space with fido and bicycles.

 

[rock]

TN is loaded with deer rite now just think how it was back then. I bet they could step out the hut and pick what they wanted to eat for the day.

 

[quito]

One story I remember somewhat from the Lewis and Clark journals, was about the time a couple of the natives heard about a fresh deer kill by one of the whitemen. They literally raced to the scene, and when the white men caught up to them they were gorging themselves on the hot fresh liver, a delicacy or prize to them.

I don't think their tastes were anything similar to ours.

 

[yakker]

They knew what was good for them! Raw liver has more essential nutrients than most things you can think of. And speaking as one who just had a little dental work done- it's far easier to chew and consume as a raw product than any other part of the animal, unless you go for the brains (and those you save for tanning). Liver first- or a tie with heart (which was more symbolic, I think). Yakker

 

[unclemac]

the Lewis and Clark folk preferred elk too while the Chinook couldn't understand why they would turn down the salmon.

 

[old digger]

Obtaining food all depended upon what was the easiest available. Now from what has been learned from some digs at those Piskuns (Buffalo Jumps) there was at times a lot of wasted meat. Many game animals were hunted in the higher elevations also due to the cooler temps and less biting flies. In these higher plateau's there have been stacked stones found for corraling Big Horn Sheep. One of these clans that specialize in hunting Big Horn Sheep in the Yellowstone Park area of the Abasorka Mts. where called the "Sheepeaters".

A few of the animals like elk, bighorn sheep, wolves, and grizzly bears once were more prevalent on the plains.

 

[monsterrack]

Hey Dennis tried to send you a PM, but your box is full.

 

[petsnazspetsnaz]

We find plenty of fire broken rock here in Manitoba as well. Mostly in the form of granite. It usually has a red colour and "crumbly" texture to it and is concentrated in the same area on sites along with lithic debitage. From what I've read, early people would dig a small pit lined with hides and fill it with water. Then they would put the red hot stones in the pit along with bones and they would extract the grease from them. One of the names given to the Assiniboine was the "Stoney Sioux" because of this technique. The older cultures such as the oxbow complex practiced it as well