VUUR-STEEN (Flintstone)

VUUR-STEEN (Flintstone)
making the Mesolithic site in the town Cascade, de Eschmark, perceptible. Commissioned by the municipal Eschede.

During archaeological research, four so called ‘hearths’ have been mapped. What we see now are discoloured spaces in the subsoil with small objects of flint nearby. This speaks to the imagination, these must have been places where hunter-gatherers came together to eat, have meetings or to sleep. Who were these people, what did they do, what were they thinking? We know that they did not stick to one place, but travelled around. Was their presence a consistent pattern or were their comings and goings unpredictable? What led them to this area?

The four hearths now form the foundation for the VUUR-STEEN plan. The surface of the hearths consists of a stony material (concrete) that seems to have been ‘cracked, torn and split by the heat’. The stony surfaces contain relief patterns of various cores of flint and in the craquelure pattern shapes light up in the night. Shapes that are inspired by the flint objects that were found.

The hunter-gatherers travelled from place to place and were thus not always present in this settlement, the fire did not burn continuously and this is still the case. Measurements over the years show us that when the atmospheric pressure drops below 1013 hPa (hectopascal) the chances of rain increase. If the pressure rises above 1013 hPa, the chances of stable weather are much higher. This 1013 hPa boundary dictates whether the hearths burn or not. Our travellers settle down in Cascade when the weather is nice, and leave when it turns foul.

Completion 2013
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