40 BULLETIN 139. UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



placed on the floor therein and a fire of dung laid outside. The 

 Jewish oven of Biblical times therefore was technically much like 

 the modern oven forming part of our stoves. The character of the 

 fuel no doubt prohibited the use of the dome oven described previ- 

 ously.'* 



Culinary operations about the great fireplaces of Europe were 

 always attended with difficulty, especially with regard to small bak- 

 ings. This was effected by baking of trenchers, scones, and the like 

 on an iron plate and in metal vessels with lid upon which hot ashes 

 could be placed. A familiar example of this is the cast-iron spider 

 with heavy Ud and bail or handle, called Dutch oven so useful in pio- 

 neering. In the colonial times several shapes and sizes of ovens of 

 this kind for baking hams, turkeys, etc., were employed. 



The large bake oven installed in a bakehouse or built in as a unit 

 of the dwelUng prevailed in Europe for many centuries, and was intro- 

 duced into America by colonists, especially those from north Europe. 

 In Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the South an occasional old "Dutch 

 oven" may be seen about the old homesteads. 



In connection with baking a further consideration is necessary in 

 regard to baking without the oven. Mention has been made of bak- 

 ing on slabs of stone laid on the coals or raised with fire beneath or 

 variously installed, culminating in the griddle. Generally this type 

 of baking received its greatest impetus in the agricultural period 

 w^here ground grains^or other vegetal food mixed in the form of mush 

 or batter were to be cooked. Examples are also common in the pre- 

 agricultural stage, as notably in the acorn area of California (pi. 10, 

 fig. 2). Here acorn mush was baked on the fire in soapstone dishes. 

 In advance of these dishes are the curved slabs of soapstone recovered 

 from ancient sites at Santa Barbara, California, which were pierced 

 with a hole near the edge to facilitate pushing in and pulling out of 

 the fire with a hooked stick (pi. 10, fig. 3). Batter breads must be 

 thin in order to bake properly. The Pueblos mount a smooth stone 

 slab as the top of a rude stove, below which a fire is built, and spread 

 the batter on in a thin layer with a trained hand. The baked prod- 

 uct is a thin sheet like paper, which is rolled up in a bundle for con- 

 sumption. 



The Mexicans use a stone or pottery griddle for baking tortillas 

 the north Africans employ a circular stone griddle, and so on (pi. 10, 

 figs. 1,5). The Iron Age ushered in more durable and serviceable 

 devices of this kind. 



STONE BOILING 



The process of boiling is intimately connected with vessels for 

 boihng, and thus is not conceived of as a primitive method. Be- 



* George A. Barton. Archeology of the Bible, Philadelphia, 1907, p. 149. 



