6,000-Year-Old Earth Ovens Discovered In Washington State

AncientPages.com | June 21, 2023 |

Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com - Ancient Tribal earth ovens built long before the Egyptian pyramids are being excavated as part of the first archeological project made public by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians.

Conducted in collaboration with Washington State University archeologists, the excavation reveals new insights into the foods the Kalispel people have been preparing and eating in the Inland Northwest for the last 5,000 years.



Linda McNulty Perez, a doctoral student at Princeton University, uses a brush to gently remove dirt from a piece of wood that had been buried in dirt below ground level during a collaborative archeological field school run by the Kalispel Tribe, WSU, and Far Western Anthropological Research Group.

“As a Tribe, we’ve never shared this kind of historical excavation experience with the public,” said Kalispel Tribal elder Shirley Blackbear. “But I think it is important for non-Natives to learn and understand more about our Tribe. Our history and traditions are very rich and important to us. Cooking techniques have been passed down from generation to generation.”

The earth ovens were discovered after the Kalispel Tribe purchased land near Newport to accommodate the need for additional Tribal housing near the Reservation. Now in its third week, the excavation has uncovered the remnants of several of the ovens, one of which radiocarbon dating suggests is 5,000 years old.

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