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and the general scarcity of identifiable charcoal. The latter charac- • <br />teristic is not Chigoe, however, to this site. Highway salvage excava- <br />tions at site 5RT11 near the confluence of Walton Creek and the Yampa <br />River, approximately 18 miles (29 kilometers) east of SF(P139, exposed <br />a feature defined. as a hearth which contained very little charcoal <br />(O'Neil, 1980, p. 9). O'Neil offers no explanation for this phenomenon <br />but dOeS note that this feature may have been used as a heat: sourW for <br />treatment of raw lithic materials (O'Neil, 1980, p. 9), an observation <br />which we will return to when the artifacts from 51139 are discussed. <br />In another example, Molloy (1954, p. 441) found at the PicKean site in <br />northeastern Wyoming that the 34 hearths in the lower level (34 an to <br />128 an belay present ground surface) contained very shall amounts of <br />charWal, suggesting that these hearths contained "fires of small plants <br />such as sagebrush and greaseaood." In mmtrast, the 56 uppers level <br />(present ground surface to 34 an belay PGS) hearths contained substantial <br />atrounts•of charcoal, most of which identified as pine (Molloy, 1954, p. • <br />443) . <br />If we consider for a manent the purpose of those features, we may be <br />able to offer another explanation for the scarcity of charcoal. It is <br />quite likely that these features were used for cooking food, the details <br />of which Prison (1978, p. 355) has described concisely. <br />"Stones were plamd on a bed of hot orals in the pits; <br />when heated, the stones served as a source of heat for <br />Woking. Whatever was to be cooked mold have been put <br />in a green hide, animal pawlch, or fiber bag, Placed <br />directly on the hot stones, covered with earth, and <br />left for a period of time. The heat usually fractured <br />the stones so that they were of no further value and <br />another pit was dug or else the old one was cleaned <br />out and fresh rock was used. " <br />If, as Prison suggests, these pits were periodically cleaned out to remove <br />the no longer useful fire-fractured rock, then all charcoal would also <br />have been removed and dumped on the growl surface outside the hearth. <br />Any m`xlerately formful wind would have carried away most of the charWal. <br />• <br />50 <br />