What’s the ‘point’ of digging into a fire pit?

[Twitch]

I’m a surface hunter. I often find fire pits eroding out of the banks of Midwest waterways and also often find signs of people digging or probing into to them. What do people expect to find here? All I ever see coming out is fire rock. I found one this weekend that was explored by someone else. I grabbed a stick and starting poking around and was shocked at how soft the material in and around the feature was. Full hard pack all around it but I could dig the pit out with a stick with little effort.

please educate me on how you would or would not hunt these features?

thanks.

 

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[1320]

I've found plenty of artifacts that were tossed into the fire, always worth a look. Not to mention, I often have to get through the Woodland fire pits to gain access to the Archaic. Not sure that really applies to an eroded out waterway pit vs shelter hunting though.

 

[joshuaream]

I've found a couple of small caches of blanks under fire pits, I assume from heating the rather poor quality chert to improve the flaking. A bit like 1320, I was digging so I guess I was going through them anyway...

 

[old digger]

I have almost always found artifacts in and around fire pits. It really doesn't hurt to check them out.

 

[Buckleberry]

It's like a bulls-eye for a site, work out from them.

 

[releventchair]

A firepit can be used for trash/debris/discards.
Bare or thinly covered feet don't need sharp stuff to walk on.
And of course babies and toddlers put half of what they find in their mouths...

I've heard of putting material in sand below a fire.
Thought it was more for annealing ,but opinions differ and I've not tried it.

However , in some old archaeological writings I read of hearths in non burial mounds containing finished points.
More ....A variety (not all one groups type) together. Same context/level...That was a puzzle to me.
Magnified by a near similar condition around 80-100 miles away.
That was not for processing. I guessed symbolic alliance or representatives from varied groups. Though I didn't and still don't know of any such referred to elsewhere.


But , I have an overly active imagination sometimes....

 

[PaleIO]

Lots of good stuff in and around them. It was the center of a natives life. I had an archeologist tell me awhile back he excavated a fire pit that had many years worth of artifacts. Even found some musket type balls that he expected were acquired from Bent's Fort, CO and used for hunting. If they found it in the meat they pitched it into the fire along with broken points and bones. The ones I have dug had lots of prarie dog bones from the kiowa people.

 

[Older The Better]

Lots of turtle around mine

 

[GaRebel1861]

I would dig into one in a heartbeat.

 

[sandchip]

I've found plenty of birdpoints in 'em.

 

[Older The Better]

I've found plenty of birdpoints in 'em.

Same here. Ive wondered if some of those points got lost in the animal, then wound up in/around the fire while the meat was being processed.

 

[kentucky Quinn]

First one I’ve ever worked or dug, but so far I’ve found two tools, a couple busted points, and one really nice knife right by mine. I’ve posted the pics of what I’ve found. I didn’t even know the fire area was there until I got down couple feet. The stuff I’ve found is within couple feet of it. Hopefully I find some more, been shut out past couple days minus some decent chips of chert.

 

[Twitch]

Appreciate all the insight. Next time I’m out there I’ll have to play around a bit with it and see how it goes.

 

[dirstscratcher]

As others have said, it all depends In my area of NC Ohio, most of the upland hearths, at least on my farm, seem to have been one or two use from the archaic era, and are void of anything but fire cracked rock and charcoal and maybe some charred nutshell. On the other hand, in the bottom lands where the woodland people started gardening, farming, and making pottery, everything changes. They spent more time at a location and may well have used old hearths as refuse pits, containing potsherds, bones, or discarded lithics. Here are a couple pics of a hearth/oven the county highway dept exposed grading a ditch near me. Since the road was closed, I took the opportunity to dig it. The contents were 25 lbs of river rock and a lot of charcoal, nothing more.

 

[monsterrack]

My best find in fire pit was a 12in wide and 6in tall pot. It had been exposed by logging and it was just a dark spot on the ground, but due to heavy equipment movement it had broken the pot into about 20 pieces. After putting it back together I gave it to the land owner which by doing so cemented a friendship for life. Always check them and If you don't won't to dig out from them at least probe the ground.

 

[RGINN]

We checked them out to get a idea of what the people were eating. You could find a lot of info about their diet.

 

[kentucky Quinn]

We checked them out to get a idea of what the people were eating. You could find a lot of info about their diet.

I can attest to this for sure. The one we are working in a rock house overhang currently has shared the fact that these people ate lots of turtle here in the hills of East KY. We pull up turtle shell from fire area pretty much each day we have dug around it. Love the learning