These were once thought to be net sinkers but the thinking is they were used to cook food before pottery. They could be placed in the fire and brought out to cook something in a skin or possibly basket. When they would brake they were re drilled to use the bigger pieces.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Boiling Stones
Collapse
X
-
Hey Johnny, The soapstone cooking stones are real interesting. Tied with something would make it easy to remove them from the stew. I am wondering what they would use for cordage that could withstand being put in the fire. Perhaps rather than tie them, they could have used the hole to hook them out of the fire.Last edited by Ron Kelley; 11-24-2017, 09:06 AM.Michigan Yooper
If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything
- Likes 2
Comment
-
Hi Johnny. Very interesting stones for sure. I never found anything like that. I used to find lots of cooking stones but all I found were river cobbles that were blackened by the repeated heating in fires. Many were broken, likely because of the heating. The only soapstone I ever found were broken pieces of pre-ceramic pots.
- Likes 1
Comment
-
I agree, I fully believe the natives who had access to steatite would have used it in all sorts of manners possible to it’s qualities.using it as cooking stones seems like an obvious idea, and Mr. Kelley’s idea about the hole being for hooking with a stick to pull out of the fire makes a lot of sense too. I can see broken bowls and such being repurposed for this reason, maybe even used as primitive hand/bed warmers too? I know of a place that has natural steatite and chlorite and I always find a few good pieces when I go there. I’ve thrown pieces into a campfire and cooked it all night in the coals and the next morning besides a lightly stained look the stones just fine. Not crumbly or brittle at all, though it matters on how good a quality the stone is and if it has many impurity or not.call me Jay, i live in R.I.
- Likes 2
Comment
Comment