Summary

Pot-boiler, a small cooking stone, from Cnoc Coig, Oronsay, 4500 - 4300 BC

Accession Number

X.1997.110 D

Other references

None

Original description

[MOS List, Food Preparation and Consumption, II.2.1, August 1997]. [One of] Small cooking stones, Cnoc Coig (Mellars excavation). PK note: Provisional 1997 register number allocated to MOS object. SD note, July 1999: Edited from SCRAN full data set. [MoS description] Fat of the land. cooking. Hot stone cookery. (1) Burnt cooking stones, Cnoc Coig and Broxmouth. 4700 BC - 200 AD. [Small hot stones were placed as 'pot-boilers' into containers of liquid]. [Scran caption] These small cooking stones were found during excavations at Cnoc Coig on Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides. They date from between 4500 and 4300 BC. The stones are natural beach cobbles or pebbles. They show signs of burning and have cracked from contact with cold liquid. They had probably been dropped into an animal skin containing water. Cooking stones were used throughout prehistory and into the Historic period as a simple device in cooking. They were used in various ways but were always heated first. Date: Between 4500 and 4300 BC. Material: Stone.

Associated person/people (e.g. excavator/former collection)

None

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

Not recorded

Method (e.g. excavation)

Not recorded

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Cnoc Coig, Oronsay, Argyll, Scotland, Northern Europe

Acquisition

Acquisition date

1997

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Not recorded

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Not recorded

Image