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Remains of earth ovens with rock heating elements of various sizes and configurations are common at hunter-gatherer sites around the world. They span the last 30,000 years in the Old World and some 10,000 years in the New World. Although various foods were baked in these ovens, plants predominate. Earth ovens are ethnographically well documented as family-size and bulk cooking facilities, but related technology and its archaeological signatures remain poorly understood and understudied. These ubiquitous features are often mischaracterized as generic cooking facilities termed hearths. It is proposed that, in fact, most rock “hearths” are heating elements of earth ovens. Reliable identification and interpretation of earth ovens requires documentation of heating elements, pit structure, rock linings, and various remnants thereof. Fundamental technological concepts for investigating their archaeological signatures include thermodynamics, construction designs, and life cycles in systemic context, as informed by ethnographic, archaeological, and experimental data. Earth oven technology explains well the primary purpose of labor-intensive thermal storage for long-term cooking and conserving fuel. Information from the extensive archaeological record of earth ovens on the Edwards Plateau of south-central North America illustrates these points.

Many experts speculate that US antitrust policy towards horizontal mergers has been too lenient. We estimate the price effects of Whirlpool's acquisition of Maytag to provide new evidence on this debate. We compare price changes in appliance markets most affected by the merger to markets where concentration changed much less or not at all. We estimate price increases for dishwashers and relatively large price increases for clothes dryers, but no price effects for refrigerators or clothes washers. The combined firm's market share fell across all four affected categories, and the number of distinct appliance products offered for sale fell.

Ethnoarchaeology has, from its inception, suffered from the lack of a clear theoretical framework to productively link its two constituent parts: ethnography and archaeology. In this paper, I propose a framework that allows the integration of ethnographic and archaeological datasets at various levels of abstraction. I argue that it is only through innovative combinations of ethnography and archaeology, applied with proper caution and disclosure and at explicit levels of abstraction, that ethnoarchaeologists can hope to construct an ethnoarchaeology that is greater than the sum of its parts.

This paper employs a practice-based framework for investigating early Mississippian period culture contact and identity negotiation in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV) through the lens offoodways. The Evelandphase (A.D. 1100–1200) was a setting of significant cultural change as a result of the movement of Cahokian people, objects, and ideas into the region. Recent analysis of excavated materials from the Lamb site in the southern portion of the CIRV affords a closer look at this historical process. Using ceramic and pit feature data, I assess Cahokian influence on traditional Late Woodlandera culinary practices. I conclude that although local residents were actively adopting some aspects of Mississippian culture (including Cahokia potting traditions), they retained traditional Late Woodland organizational practices of cooking, serving, and storing food. By placing the organization offoodways at the center of this study, this paper illuminates another dimension of Cahokian contact in the region.

OBJECTIVES To measure the concentrations of particles less than 100 nm diameter and of oxides of nitrogen generated by cooking with gas and electricity, to comment on possible hazards to health in poorly ventilated kitchens. METHODS Experiments with gas and electric rings, grills, and ovens were used to compare different cooking procedures. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) were measured by a chemiluminescent ML9841A NOx analyser. A TSI 3934 scanning mobility particle sizer was used to measure average number concentration and size distribution of aerosols in the size range 10–500 nm. RESULTS High concentrations of particles are generated by gas combustion, by frying, and by cooking of fatty foods. Electric rings and grills may also generate particles from their surfaces. In experiments where gas burning was the most important source of particles, most particles were in the size range 15–40 nm. When bacon was fried on the gas or electric rings the particles were of larger diameter, in the size range 50–100 nm. The smaller particles generated during experiments grew in size with time because of coagulation. Substantial concentrations of NOX were generated during cooking on gas; four rings for 15 minutes produced 5 minute peaks of about 1000 ppb nitrogen dioxide and about 2000 ppb nitric oxide. CONCLUSIONS Cooking in a poorly ventilated kitchen may give rise to potentially toxic concentrations of numbers of particles. Very high concentrations of oxides of nitrogen may also be generated by gas cooking, and with no extraction and poor ventilation, may reach concentrations at which adverse health effects may be expected. Although respiratory effects of exposure to NOx might be anticipated, recent epidemiology suggests that cardiac effects cannot be excluded, and further investigation of this is desirable.

One of the central questions in the development of Mesoamerican civilization is how the alimentary, agronomic, and ecological complementarities were achieved within the milpa agroecosystem, which is one of its more important and distinctive cultural elements. In the Mesoamerican center of origin of agriculture and domestication of plants, located in western Mexico, we inquired among Náhuatl communities about the ancient dishes prepared with wild plants that are part of their ancient foodways, and the tools and technology used to prepare them. We found that the wild progenitors of Agave spp., Zea mays L, Cucurbita argyrosperma Hort. Ex L.H. Bayley, Phaseolus spp., Capsicum annum L., Solanum lycopersicum L., Physalis phyladelphica Lam, Spondias purpurea L., Persea americana Mill., and Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit are consumed in dishes that remain in the present food culture of the poor peasants, and are prepared with techniques and tools that were available in the Archaic period: Sun drying, roasting, toasting, baking, cracking, grinding, crushing, fermenting, and soaking in plain water or in water with ash, using three—stone fireplaces, stone toasters, crushers, grinders, rock pits, and three types of earth ovens. A remarkable finding was that beans could be incorporated into the diet without boiling, but just by toasting, stone grinding, and baking in corn dough tamales. Results obtained suggest that the basic Mesoamerican diet could have been shaped before the species involved were domesticated. Its nutritional complementarity since the Archaic period could have been one of the incentives for the development of the milpa system and the domestication of its species, achieving in this way also their ecological and agronomical complementarity. Una de las preguntas centrales acerca del desarrollo de la civilización Mesoamericana es cómo se logró la complementariedad alimentaria y agroecológica dentro del agroecosistema milpa, el cual es uno de sus elementos culturales más importantes y característicos. En el centro Mesoamericano de origen de agricultura y domesticación de plantas que se encuentra en el occidente de México, investigamos entre comunidades Náhuatls los platillos basados en plantas silvestres que forman parte de su cultura alimentaria antigua, y las técnicas e instrumentos que utilizan para elaborarlos. Encontramos que los ancestros silvestres de Agave spp., Zea mays L, Cucurbita argyrosperma Hort. Ex L.H. Bayley, Phaseolus spp., Capsicum annum L., Solanum lycopersicum L., Physalis phyladelphica Lam., Spondias purpurea L., Persea americana Mill., e Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit son consumidos en platillos que permanecen en la cultura alimentaria de los campesinos pobres, y que son elaboradas con técnicas y herramientas que estuvieron disponibles en el periodo arcaico: secado al sol, asado, tostado, horneado, triturado, molido, exprimido, fermentado y remojado en agua o en agua con cenizas, usando el fogón de tres piedras, los tostadores, exprimidores y moledores de piedra, los pozos de piedra y tres tipos de horno bajo tierra. Un hallazgo relevante es que los frijoles pudieron ser incorporados a la dieta sin ser hervidos, sino solo tostados, molidos en piedras y horneados en tamales de masa de maíz. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que la dieta básica Mesoamericana pudo haberse conformado antes de que las especies involucradas fueran domesticadas. Su complementariedad nutricional desde el periodo Arcaico pudo haber sido uno de los incentivos para el desarrollo del agroecosistema milpa y la domesticación de sus especies, lográndose así también su complementariedad agroecológica.

An intensive particle monitoring study was conducted in homes in the Boston, Massachusetts, area during the winter and summer of 1996 in an effort to characterize sources of indoor particles. As part of this study, continuous particle size and mass concentration data were collected in four single-family homes, with each home monitored for one or two 6-day periods. Additionally, housing activity and air exchange rate data were collected. Cooking, cleaning, and the movement of people were identified as the most important indoor particle sources in these homes. These sources contributed significantly both to indoor concentrations (indoor-outdoor ratios varied between 2 and 33) and to altered indoor particle size distributions. Cooking, including broiling/baking, toasting, and barbecuing contributed primarily to particulate matter with physical diameters between 0.02 and 0.5 μm [ PM(0.02-0.5)], with volume median diameters of between 0.13 and 0.25 μm. Sources of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters between 0.7 and 10 μm [ PM(0.7-10)] included sautéing, cleaning (vacuuming, dusting, and sweeping), and movement of people, with volume median diameters of between 3 and 4.3 μm. Frying was associated with particles from both PM(0.02-0.5) and PM(0.7-10). Air exchange rates ranged between 0.12 and 24.3 exchanges/hr and had significant impact on indoor particle levels and size distributions. Low air exchange rates (< 1 exchange/hr) resulted in longer air residence times and more time for particle concentrations from indoor sources to increase. When air exchange rates were higher (> 1 exchange/hr), the impact of indoor sources was less pronounced, as indoor particle concentrations tracked outdoor levels more closely.

3D-printable composites have become an attractive option used for the design and manufacture of electrochemical sensors. However, to ensure proper charge-transfer kinetics at the electrode/electrolyte interface, activation is often required, with this step consisting of polymer removal to reveal the conductive nanofiller. In this work, we present a novel effective method for the activation of composites consisting of poly(lactic acid) filled with carbon black (CB-PLA) using microwave radiation. A microwave synthesizer used in chemical laboratories (CEM, Matthews, NC, USA) was used for this purpose, establishing that the appropriate activation time for CB-PLA electrodes is 15 min at 70 °C with a microwave power of 100 W. However, the usefulness of an 80 W kitchen microwave oven is also presented for the first time and discussed as a more sustainable approach to CB-PLA electrode activation. It has been established that 10 min in a kitchen microwave oven is adequate to activate the electrode. The electrochemical properties of the microwave-activated electrodes were determined by electrochemical techniques, and their topography was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and contact-angle measurements. This study confirms that during microwave activation, PLAs decompose to uncover the conductive carbon-black filler. We deliver a proof-of-concept of the utility of kitchen microwave-oven activation of a 3D-printed, free-standing electrochemical cell (FSEC) in paracetamol electroanalysis in aqueous electrolyte solution. We established satisfactory limits of linearity for paracetamol detection using voltammetry, ranging from 1.9 μM to 1 mM, with a detection limit (LOD) of 1.31 μM.

Earth oven cooking is very important among the Yucatec Maya. It is used for daily, festive, and ceremonial occasions, contrasting with other Mesoamerican cultures that use this technique sporadically. In this paper we present an ethnobotanical analysis of the use of earth ovens in a Maya community in Yucatan, Mexico, and discuss its possible antiquity, probable reasons for its continuity, and its current and past importance. We found four oven types in daily use as well as in ritual and celebratory contexts. These involve both men and women in a way that favors transmission of traditional knowledge to the next generation and promotes social bonding and ethnic identity. Of the 46 plant species used in their construction or for the dishes cooked in them, 82% are native and produced in traditional agricultural systems: milpa (kool in Maya) maize-bean-squash association and conuco (pach pakal in Maya) based on tubers such as manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz). Research suggests that this food preparation technology has the same antiquity as its associated agricultural systems (approximately 3400 to 3000 B.C.E.). Earth ovens were probably used to cook roots and meat in the Archaic and then to cook tamales (vegetal-wrapped maize dough) beginning in the Preclassic. Continuity of traditional agricultural and cultural practices has favored preservation of earth ovens. La preparación de alimentos en horno bajo tierra es muy importante entre los mayas yucatecos. Se usa de manera cotidiana, para ocasiones festivas y para ceremonias, contrastando con lo que ocurre en las otras culturas mesoamericanas, quienes usan esta técnica de manera esporádica. En este artículo, presentamos un análisis etnobotánico de los hornos bajo tierra en una comunidad maya en Yucatán, México, y discutimos su posible antigüedad y las posibles razones de su continuidad e importancia actual y pasada. Encontramos cuatro tipos de hornos, tanto de uso diario, como en contextos festivo y ritual. En su construcción y uso participan hombres y mujeres de una manera que favorece la transmisión de los conocimientos tradicionales a la siguiente generación, promueve la vinculación social y la identidad étnica. De las 46 especies de plantas utilizadas en su construcción y en la preparación de los platillos cocinados en ellos, 82% son nativos y se producen en los sistemas agrícolas tradicionales milpa (kool en maya) asociación maíz-frijol-calabaza y conuco (pach pakal en maya) asociación basada en tubérculos como yuca (Manihot esculenta Crantz). La investigación sugiere que esta tecnología de preparación de alimentos tiene la misma antigüedad que dichos sistemas agrícolas (aproximadamente 3400 a 3000 a. C.). Los hornos de tierra probablemente fueron usados para cocinar carne y raíces en el Arcaico y en el Preclásico comenzaron a usarse para cocer tamales (alimento a base de masa de maíz envuelta en hojas vegetales). La continuidad de la agricultura tradicional y de las prácticas culturales ha favorecido la permanencia del horno bajo tierra.

Cooking methods and practises are crucial in defining group identity, in expressing social and kin networks, and in reflecting domestic economies. In this paper I discuss fire installations and fire related utensils from a functional and typological point of view, throughout the prehistoric and early historic phases of occupation at the East Anatolian site of Arslantepe, over a period of nearly 2500 years (4200-1750 BCE) Arslantepe, through this long sequence, testifies to the development of hierarchical societies, the origin of primary state and its collapse, groups of semi-mobile pastoral communities and then small towns of farmers. Through the distribution of cooking facilities, their attributes and peculiarities, domestic economies and social relations linked to food preparation and consumption are investigated at the site. Les méthodes de cuisson et les pratiques culinaires sont essentielles pour définir L'identité d'un groupe. Elles permettent d'identifier des réseaux parentaux ou sociaux, tout en reflétant une économie familiale. Dans cet article, je présente, d'un point de vue typologique et fonctionnel, les installations associées au feu et les ustensiles utilisés sur le site d'Arslantepe, en Anatolie orientale, sur une période de près de 2500 ans (4200-1750 av. notre ère). Arslantepe témoigne, par cette longue séquence, du développement des sociétés hiérarchisées, de l'origine de État et de son effondrement, de l'arrivée de communautés pastorales semi-mobiles puis de l'existence de petits villages agricoles. Les économies familiales et les relations sociales liées à la préparation et à la consommation des aliments sont ici étudiées à travers le prisme de la répartition spatiale des équipements culinaires et leurs différentes caractéristiques techniques.