jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 25, 2022 10:31:20 GMT -5
They are usually made out of dense sandstone and look geologically out of place at most campsites. Many walk past grinding stones. They have to be inspected closely to see the bowl depression. Many are two sided. Many around Atlanta are made out of a low grade green soapstone from Soapstone Hill in east Atlanta(the smallest one). The large one weighs about 50 pounds. Wife found it, guess who carried it a half mile ! The two at upper left were found in my front yard; we built the house in the fork of two creeks. Also an ancient encampment. Filled a 2 gallon bucket with points found in the front and back yard over the years. Many old historical homesites were built on ancient encampments as the sites were flat and close to water back then.
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Post by RickB on Mar 25, 2022 11:34:13 GMT -5
Nice finds James. I have a few that I've found through the years. Sometimes they will have smaller (nut size) depressions around the larger bowl size depression.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Mar 26, 2022 7:57:19 GMT -5
Nice finds James. I have a few that I've found through the years. Sometimes they will have smaller (nut size) depressions around the larger bowl size depression. Wife and I found a half dozen nutting stones on one ridge where they had cleared the land for a golf course. All made out of the same dense sandstone and all about 4" x 4". I have seen them with the divots you mentioned for nuts around the edge of the bowl. They must have eaten(totally bitter) hickory nuts. They must have had a recipe to remove the bitterness ! Perhaps walnuts were common back then. Maybe acorns could be prepared to taste better too.
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Post by Peruano on Mar 26, 2022 9:16:54 GMT -5
Here in the desert and mountain SW the grind stones are often found with the concavity turned down (to protect them from weathering?), but also making them harder to recognize since the bottom merely looks like a rock. In areas with huge boulder and rock outcrops grinding holes are often clustered (acorn or mesquite bean prep must have been a communal/social aggregated process. I have wandered away from most of those I found; just as the original folks that made and used them had before me.
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Post by RickB on Mar 26, 2022 11:04:06 GMT -5
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 26, 2022 16:31:18 GMT -5
Very cool James and Rick! That is the part of my collection I left at our California home. Just too bulky to move. As I was older when I moved, I could not believe the weight of some of those dang things I had carried back to my car. The largest was a mesquite seed grinding stone with a pecked square depression and a ground chute to direct the meal into a basket. Took forever to tote that monster across a good piece of rough desert scrub. Two heartbreakers I found were a huge and very refined mortar like Ricks except very organized with one large hole and four symmetrical holes along the top of the other. On top of a tall hill under oaks and way too heavy and hard to reach to haul out. The other we found when we were hiking Mesquite Flats in Death Valley and found an entire campsite blown out of the sand complete with manos still setting on top of metates, beads everywhere, and even pieces of steel wagon hoop partly beaten into points. Collecting there was a no no of course. Bedrock mortars of course, were all over by our old ranch in Hunters Valley. Neighboring ranch had a huge flat rock full of them.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Mar 27, 2022 7:07:22 GMT -5
Here in the desert and mountain SW the grind stones are often found with the concavity turned down (to protect them from weathering?), but also making them harder to recognize since the bottom merely looks like a rock. In areas with huge boulder and rock outcrops grinding holes are often clustered (acorn or mesquite bean prep must have been a communal/social aggregated process. I have wandered away from most of those I found; just as the original folks that made and used them had before me. The beauty of the desert is it's undisturbed condition Tom. It wouldn't surprise if you found both mortar and pestle together as they were left many years ago. Most of the ones found here have plow marks or are broken from heavy equipment. Not much land out east has not seen manipulation of some form be it timbering, the plow or a bulldozer.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 27, 2022 7:14:24 GMT -5
Classics Rick. Above average actually. Those look like carbon copies of the stones found over here. Nutting stones seem more common in north Georgia where the large hardwoods are so common. That combo unit is real fine. It has been noted that constantly eating stone ground nuts and grains shorten teeth. Archeologists find this particularly true with Native peoples teeth.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Mar 27, 2022 7:40:01 GMT -5
Very cool James and Rick! That is the part of my collection I left at our California home. Just too bulky to move. As I was older when I moved, I could not believe the weight of some of those dang things I had carried back to my car. The largest was a mesquite seed grinding stone with a pecked square depression and a ground chute to direct the meal into a basket. Took forever to tote that monster across a good piece of rough desert scrub. Two heartbreakers I found were a huge and very refined mortar like Ricks except very organized with one large hole and four symmetrical holes along the top of the other. On top of a tall hill under oaks and way too heavy and hard to reach to haul out. The other we found when we were hiking Mesquite Flats in Death Valley and found an entire campsite blown out of the sand complete with manos still setting on top of metates, beads everywhere, and even pieces of steel wagon hoop partly beaten into points. Collecting there was a no no of course. Bedrock mortars of course, were all over by our old ranch in Hunters Valley. Neighboring ranch had a huge flat rock full of them. The chute incorporation is an addition I have never seen out this way Mel. Most of the grinding stones out this way are fairly primitive. Oddly modern artifacts such as Mississippian age seem rare compared to older eras. The only reason might be the later shift to farming and reduced amount of meat hunting meant less point usage. And the smaller more modern type points are often found in rich farm fields where the soil was easy to work. The beads, jewelry and pottery out west have always been impressive and showy. Perhaps they were more advanced or were into the arts at a later time and/or historical time than out east. Speaking of grinding depressions in bedrock, large granite boulders are common around the Atlanta area. Many don't notice but grinding depressions are in many of them. Granite boulders
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Post by mohs on Mar 28, 2022 19:06:38 GMT -5
Hi all have never found matate altho have photographed many at various Hohokam sites think out this way on the hard barren desert floor easily noticed and collected decades ago sure there are still few to be located This is one I photoed a couple weeks ago At Pueblo Grande Ancient Techne` Days how well grooved and used theses stones are lots of meal ground... I might have to rethink my searching according to Peruano insight leave no stone unturned mohs be rolling
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
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Post by jamesp on Apr 1, 2022 6:26:02 GMT -5
I found a grinding stone on yesterday's outing. Or should I say a half of a grinding stone, the plow had broken and slashed it mohs. In these parts plows and bulldozers destroy them. Better to save them from destruction ! The set up you posted is an awesome pair. The undisturbed desert makes a great home for such. It would have had a short life on the flat rich camps that got farmed in the east where rocks in the field are the enemy. I also found a pestle yesterday. It has heavy plow damage too. The broken points likely met the same fate. The undamaged sides: Actually there are two plow gouges on this side: Then the back side with a disc groove left to right and sheared edge on top: This site will likely be rock raked(the rocks buried) and the field put into pasture. Welcome to the SE US !
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