The d?bris
scattered about the pits indicates the manner in which they are covered
with slabs of stone and sealed with mud when in use. In all the oven,
devices of the pueblos the interior is first thoroughly heated by a long
continued fire within, the structure. When the temperature is
sufficiently high the ashes and dirt are cleaned out, the articles to be
cooked inserted, and the orifices sealed. The food is often left in
these heated receptacles for 12 hours or more, and on removal it is
generally found to be very nicely cooked. Each of the pi-gummi ovens
illustrated above is provided with a tube-like orifice 3 or 4 inches in
diameter, descending obliquely from the ground level into the cavity.
Through this opening the fire is arranged and kept in order, and in this
respect it seems to be the counterpart of the smaller hole of the Zu?i
dome-shaped ovens. When the principal opening, by which the vessel
containing the pi-gummi or other articles is introduced, has been
covered with a slab of stone and sealed with mud, the effect is similar
to that of the dome-shaped oven when the ground-opening or doorway is
hermetically closed.
No example of the dome-shaped oven of pre-Columbian origin has been
found among the pueblo ruins, although its prototype probably existed in
ancient times, possibly in the form of a kiln for baking a fine quality
of pottery formerly manufactured. However, the cooking pit alone,
developed to the point of the pi-gummi oven of Tusayan, may have been
the stem upon which the foreign idea was engrafted.
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