6,000-Year-Old Earth Ovens Discovered In Washington State

[Judi Lynn]

AncientPages.com | June 21, 2023 |

Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com - Ancient Tribal earth ovens built long before the Egyptian pyramids are being excavated as part of the first archeological project made public by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians.

Conducted in collaboration with Washington State University archeologists, the excavation reveals new insights into the foods the Kalispel people have been preparing and eating in the Inland Northwest for the last 5,000 years.



Linda McNulty Perez, a doctoral student at Princeton University, uses a brush to gently remove dirt from a piece of wood that had been buried in dirt below ground level during a collaborative archeological field school run by the Kalispel Tribe, WSU, and Far Western Anthropological Research Group.

“As a Tribe, we’ve never shared this kind of historical excavation experience with the public,” said Kalispel Tribal elder Shirley Blackbear. “But I think it is important for non-Natives to learn and understand more about our Tribe. Our history and traditions are very rich and important to us. Cooking techniques have been passed down from generation to generation.”

The earth ovens were discovered after the Kalispel Tribe purchased land near Newport to accommodate the need for additional Tribal housing near the Reservation. Now in its third week, the excavation has uncovered the remnants of several of the ovens, one of which radiocarbon dating suggests is 5,000 years old.

More:
https://www.ancientpages.com/2023/06/21/6000-year-old-earth-ovens-washington/

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. Any pizza left in any of them?

You always find the most interesting articles to post. Thanks!

[Judi Lynn]

6. Discovery, innovation, progress always seem mysterious, Hermit-The-Prog!

Your comment is so appreciated. Thank you.

[Goonch]

2. Build Your Own Earth Oven $17.95

[Judi Lynn]

7. That over seems to challenge you to put anything in it, or take it out! Wow. Thanks.

[Warpy]

3. That's about the time they found them in N. Africa

and elsewhere, although the oldest documented oven remains are in Israel, dating to at least 23,000 years ago, people seemingly processing and baking grains before they started to cultivate them.

I imagine before that, people who couldn't face another day of cream of whatever heated up a flat rock and sloshed the stuff over it. The heat from the rock causes steam to bubble up the "bread" and release it. I've actually seen this one done.

It's always a little amazing to me how early that first recognizable oven was, and I know archaeologists are trying to push the date back to 30,000 years ago. Looks like our paleolithic ancestors not only enjoyed carbs, they knew the best ways to prepare them.

[wnylib]

4. Your second paragraph sounds like

the invention of pancakes. Just squash some berries to pour over them.

[Warpy]

5. There's no leavening in what I've seen

It wouldn't do any good if there were, the grains had no gluten. It was just a thick slurry.

[wnylib]

8. OK. It was the description of the slurry bubbling when

it was splashed onto a hot rock that made me think of a pancake cooking.

But there are two cultures that come to mind who had/have unleavened bread, Jewish and the Seneca people.

[Warpy]

9. The bubbles are under it, not through it

I imagine the first raised breads were invented when a slurry was left due to an emergency and retrieved the next day, bubbleing with wild yeast. Since heat kills off the bad stuff, they went ahead and dropped blobs of it on the hot rock. And so the crumpet was born.