Tag: Fire-Altered Rocks

EXPLORING FUNCTIONAL VARIATION IN FIRE-ALTERED ROCKS

Christopher Pierce

Paper presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology

Atlanta, Georgia 1989

Fire-altered rocks, as the name implies, are rocks that show signs of alteration resulting from exposure to extreme heat. These rocks are often referred to as "fire-cracked rocks" by archaeologists because cracking is a common and readily distinguishable form of alteration. The archaeological record in many areas of the world contains great quantities of fire-altered rocks and these rocks were recognized early on as artifacts. However, the lack of stylistic attributes of most fire-altered rocks lead, understandably, to their neglect by archaeologists devoted to working out culture histories. More recently, a growing concern with functional or analogous variation has lead some archaeologist, primarily in the past decade, to look more closely at fire-altered rocks as a source of information about the past (e.g., Ericson 1972; McDowell-Loudan 1983; Pierce 1982, 1988; Roll 1982; Thoms 1986; Van Dyke, et al 1980). Although these studies have served to increase the awareness of the potential of fire-altered rock studies in some areas, in general, archaeologists continue to ignore these artifacts. Consequently, we still know exceedingly little about the nature and significance of variation in fire-altered rocks.