Back
Very intensively heated limestone
rocks found within Lens 4 in the A Block excavations crumbled into
pure lime when excavators struck them. Most of the surrounding rocks
within this burned rock midden deposit remained quite hard despite
being fractured by heating while being used as cooking stones. The
crumbly rocks were heated very intensively, to far higher temperatures
than ordinarily reached during hot rock cooking, but whether this was
intentional or not is unknown. Historic period masons create lime for
plaster and cement by intensively heating limestone in kilns, but there
is no evidence that the prehistoric peoples of the region did so.
Back