Boiling Stones

[willjo]

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.

[willjo]

They were made from soapstone or steatite and could be placed in fire without exploding. here is a shot of four and the kidney shaped piece has a small hole and may not have been used for this .

[willjo]

side shots of pieces

[gregszybala]

Cool and interesting, Can you imagine? Everything you cooked to eat pre pottery?

[Ron Kelley]

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.

[sailorjoe]

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.

[willjo]

We have found some pieces of soapstone bowls also.

[OnewiththewilD]

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.

[Ron Kelley]

When I was young the second floor wasn't heated. We would place bricks on the wood stove, wrap the brick in a towel, and use that to warm the bed. I had no silver spoon. lol

[OnewiththewilD]

Btw awesome finds too!

[Tam]

Always learning here .

[SDhunter]

Very interesting stuff!