188 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuLL. 185 
OPEN HEARTHS (9) 
Hearths of two classes and four types, numbering nine examples in all, were 
unearthed at the Hintz site. They occurred beyond the distinguishable limits 
of major constructional features, or in the trash dump, and hence they are 
dubbed “open” hearths. Actually, some or all of them may have been associated 
with perishable structures, e.g., wikiups, skin tipis, lean-tos. They include 
the following. 
UNPREPARED HEARTHS 
The seven hearths in this class are of two types: 
Lightly fired hearths: F1, subcircular, measuring 1.55 feet in maximum diam- 
eter and 0.2 foot in depth, was found at a depth of 0.4 foot below the surface 
in XU1 (fig. 29). It contained a mixture of sherds, charred wood, fine gray 
ash, and brown sand. F20, circular, measuring 1.3 feet in diameter and 0.2 
foot in depth, was uncovered at a depth of 0.7 foot below the surface in a west 
extension of XU4 (fig. 29). It held a mixture of gray ash and charcoal frag- 
ments, fire-cracked rocks, and broken animal bones. And F46, oval, measuring 
1.7 feet in maximum length by 0.9 foot in maximum breadth by 0.15 foot in 
maximum depth, was exposed at a depth 0.5 foot below the surface in the south- 
central part of XU24 (fig. 27). It yielded a mixture of brown silt, burned bone 
fragments, and a few tiny sherds. The enveloping matrix produced small 
sherds and bone fragments. 
Heavily fired hearths: ¥5, subcircular, measuring 2.0 feet in maximum 
diameter and 0.85 foot in depth, occurred at a depth of 0.4 foot below the 
surface in XU1, some 3.8 feet northwest of F1, center-to-center (fig. 29). It 
contained a mixture of gray ash and charcoal underlain by fire-reddened sand. 
¥31, circular, measuring 2.75 feet in diameter and 0.5 foot in depth, was found 
at a depth of 1.05 feet below the surface in XU8, a little over 3 feet east of the 
entryway of House 2 (F25). It yielded gray ash and finely divided charcoal, 
and one fire-fractured cobble. F386, oval, measuring 0.9 foot in maximum 
length by 0.6 foot (?) in maximum width by 0.8 foot in depth (fig. 29). It was 
filled with a mixture of gray ash and shaly sand. F44, subcircular, measuring 
1.55 feet in maximum diameter and 0.3 foot in depth, was uncovered at a 
depth of 0.4 foot below the surface near the center of XU21 (fig. 27). The 
fill consisted of dark-brown silt intermingled with gray-brown ash, charcoal, and 
small pieces of charred bone. The matrix surrounding this hearth produced 
several small sherds and seattered fragments of charred bone. 
PREPARED HEARTHS 
The two hearths in this class were of two types: 
Stone-platform hearth: F45, an incomplete subcircular cluster of 11 fragments 
of granite boulders, measuring 1.5 feet in maximum diameter, was exposed at 
a depth of 0.6 foot below the surface in the northwest corner of XU24, some 6.7 
feet northwest of, and 0.1 foot deeper than, F46, previously mentioned (fig. 27). 
Although no ash and charcoal were found in and among the stones of F45, the 
shape of the cluster and the condition of the rocks (heat-fractured?) make it 
all but certain that this feature represented a platform hearth. Bone scrap 
was found in the surrounding matrix. 
Basin-shaped stone-lined hearth: F47, a subcircular basin, measuring ap- 
proximately 4.0 feet in maximum diameter and 0.35 foot in maximum depth, and 
partially lined with 22 whole or fragmented granite boulders (and possibly by one 
other boulder fragment found 1.85 feet to the southwest) was uncovered in the 
southern part of XUT7, at a depth of 0.45 foot below the surface (fig. 27). 
