Tim's Page
If you are interested in archaeology in the Great Basin, check here!
FIRE-CRACKED ROCK: Experiments with fire-cracked rock is on-going.
EARTH OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN POTLUCK/WORKPARTY - Saturday, September 8th, around 10:00am. Call Tim or
Donna at 738-6269 if interested.(p) The Murphys will provide the chickens. Everyone else is asked to bring a dish
to share. In addition to roasting and eating, we will begin work on the Midas Exhibit and possibly
other miscellaneous tasks like painting the ECCNAA screens.(p) We will roast the chicekn in an earth oven, a traditional way of cooking used
by people around the world prior to the invention of above ground ovens and stoves. The earth oven is
simply a hole in the ground filled with heated rocks. Food, wrapped in a protective layer of green vegetation (and in modern times with cooking
parchment or tin foil), is nestled in the rocks and covered with soil. Cooking time and the size and shape of the oven varied depending on the culture
and the type of food being cooked. Some foods were cooked for as long as 24 hours. Since we have never done this before, we will be doing a little experimenting,
but anticipate cooking time will be two to four hours.(P) While cooking in an earth oven will be breat fun, it will also have a practical element in that it will be used
as part of Tim Murphy's ongoing hot rock cooking/fire-cracked rock experiments. Fire-cracked rock (the discarded, fractured pieces of cooking stones) is a common artifact found on archaeological
sites but is often given but passing notice by archaeologists. Some archaeologists believe that this mundane artifact has important information to offer and have been doingexperiments to determine if
murphys@citlink.net
