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| Plan drawing of Feature 7/8 showing the inferred functional parts of this earth oven facility. This “hearth” and “scatter” are thought to be the result of at least two oven use episodes. The “first event” is represented by a scattered patch of small fire-cracked rocks cleaned out of a cooking pit when the “last event” transpired. The last event is represented by a tightly packed bed of mainly intact cooking stones surrounded by a ring of smaller rocks thought to represent “lid” rocks—a second layer of heated rocks placed above the sotol hearts baked in this oven. If this sounds like a tenuous interpretation, it is, but it is one supported by multiple lines of evidence including the charred remains of firewood and sotol leaf bases. Graphic by Dan Julien, from Black et al. 1997: Figure 131. |