Vardagsmat och åkallan

Olika användningsområden för kokgropar

Abstract

Knowing that cooking-pits are a very disparate material and not at all easy to understand, I have analysed seven sites with this kind of features according to their context. My point being, since their common use is as simple as making a fire in a pit with stones, we must sort out in what context this fire is made in order to understand why it was made.

These seven sites are connected to animal husbandry, hunting or cult; but coking-pits can also be found in other contexts such as settlement sites and grave sites. In connection with animal husbandry the pits may have been used as a way to keep insects away or to create warmth. At hunting sites meat can be dried by means of a fire in a pit; and at cult-sites the fire, the stones and the water nearby the sites may possibly play a part in various cultic ceremonies.