Archaeological evidence has enbled us to observe the variations in shape ans spatialdistribution of early medieval cooking ovens, but many questions remain as to the way they worked and were used.

The experimentation carried out over the last few years has attempted to highlight the factors at work during the cooking process : the reddening of the clay is the main point which links the archaeological oven to the experimental one. The trials established are still in their early stages, but an observation procedure has been established in order to facilitate comparison between the experiments. At the same time, analyses of the magnetic fields have been carried out in order to estimate the impact of the ground morphology and of the sediment, among other things, on the way the so-called thermo-remanent magnetism is acquired by the base of those ovens that have remained undisturbed