Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [218]
It is, however, possible that the compact burned earth and slag were not the product of campfires, as proposed by Ameghino. Hrdlicka observed some contemporary fire sites, noting that reddening and blackening of the earth was produced, but no cohesion. This suggested the improbability that the compact tierra cocida resulted from campfires (Hrdlicka 1912, pp. 49–50). Furthermore, specimens of tierra cocida were sent to Washington, D.C., where they were examined by Frederick Eugene Wright and Clarence N. Fenner of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution. These researchers reported that the tierra cocida was composed of Pampean loess heated at 850–1050 degrees Centigrade, a temperature they said was too high to be attributed to either grass fires or small wood bonfires (Hrdlicka 1912, p. 88).
Evidence for a more intensive fire was suggested by the presence of the scoriae, or pieces of slag. According to the report of the Geophysical Laboratory, the scoriae examined there were not of volcanic origin. Wright and Fenner noted that the scoriae “do not agree with any known eruptive rock or lava in their microscopic features” (Hrdlicka 1912, p. 94).
Wright and Fenner went on to note some puzzling features of the scoriae. First they were a melted loess, but the melted loess was not composed of the same materials as the layers of loess from which the scoriae had been extracted. To Wright and Fenner, this indicated the scoriae had not been produced by fire in that locality. Second, although the glassy scoriae contained iron compounds, they were not reddish in color, as would be the case if the iron compounds had been exposed to oxygen. This indicated that the scoriae were not formed by the action of fire in the open air. The scientists of the Geophysical Laboratory, straining for an explanation, suggested that the scoriae were produced underground by an extrusion of molten lava from deep within the earth, which melted a loess different from that found in the surface layers (Hrdlicka 1912, pp. 93–97).
But there are many difficulties with such an explanation. First of all, as noted by Wright and Fenner, there was no sign of any extrusion of lava in the strata throughout which the scoriae were found scattered. The researchers of the Geophysical Laboratory nevertheless stuck to their opinion that contact of loess with molten lava was the most likely cause of the scoriae. But they had to go to great lengths to explain away the absence of any normal lava at the sites from which the scoriae had come: “it may be that the volcanic extrusion was of the explosive type, whereby the lava . . . was shattered and reduced to dust, which fell to the surface as volcanic ash and now constitutes an integral part of the loess formation. Under these conditions the cooler, viscous, melted loess fragments would remain intact and be ejected as scoriae and resist attrition and breaking down more effectively than the shattered volcanic lava” (Hrdlicka 1912, p. 96).
5.1.7 Primitive Kilns and Foundries?
The lava hypothesis of Wright and Fenner involves a quite extraordinary chain of speculative reasoning. There is, however, a possible explanation for the burned earth and slag that places considerably less strain on the limits of credibility—namely that they might be the result of intentional fire of a type other than campfires. Even today, one can observe inhabitants of many areas of the world making use of primitive foundries and kilns. Let us therefore consider the hypothesis that the burned earth and slag present on the Argentine coast are the byproducts of crude iron smelting furnaces. This idea was suggested to us by Arlington H. Mallery’s book Lost America, which