This suggests the hematite crystals are not oxidation products of siderite, because pyrite is easily altered to goethite under an oxygenated atmosphere.
Each household had at least one, and often a few, hematite (iron oxide) cylinders.
They also had to obtain their hematite pigment cylinders, seashells, presumably salt, and some other commodities from central places outside the village.
The cylinders were made of powdered hematite held together by an unknown, but presumably organic, binder, and they were of a standardized size and shape.
The topography and chaotic terrain may favor a hydrothermal aquifer as the original setting where hematite formed.
The fault planes are characterized by anastomosing clayey gouge layers with thin (1 mm-10 cm) zones of cataclasite, breccia and hematite-clay-coated fractured rock.
One of the young adults was closely associated with a layer of ground hematite and two jade beads.
Future activities include climbing out of the crater and investigating this hematite-rich material.
