40 



PECKED, GKOUND AND POLISHED STONE. 



locality) . Xot a few of them, however, are of a remarkably symmetrical shape, 

 and their production, notwithstanding 1 the tractable character of the material, 

 must have been the result of long-continued patient labor. Many measure 

 more than a foot in height, and nearly twenty inches in diameter at the widest 

 part. They are about an inch and three-fourths thick at the rim, but increase 

 slightly in thickness toward the bottom. The very regular cavity in these 

 mortars reaches a depth of nine and a half inches (Fig. 156, Dos Pueblos). 

 In a number of the mortars the flat rim was inlaid with small pieces of 

 shell, some of which are still in place. They were cemented into the stone 

 by means of asphaltum. A mortar of rather small size, but shaped like the 

 larger specimens, exhibits on its outer side a raised zigzag ornamentation 

 (Fig. 157, Santa Cruz Island). 

 The mortars thus far described were used in connection with pestles, or, 



perhaps, sometimes with 

 rounded stones fitting in 

 their cavities, and thus form- 



1GO 



ing 



crushing tools rather 



than pounders. Other uten 

 sils of a somewhat kin 

 dred character are trough- 

 shaped, and the grinding 

 operation was performed by 

 pressing a stone of suitable 

 form forward and backward 

 in the elongated, cavity. 

 Several specimens of this 

 description are in the col 

 lection. They were obtain 

 ed (chiefly through the 

 agency of Major J. ~VV. 

 Powell) from Utah Terri 

 tory, where such utensils, 

 which resemble in general 

 character the Mexican me- 

 fate, arc still used by the 

 aborigines (Fig. 158, sand 

 stone) . Instead of the con 

 cave stone a perfectly even 

 stone slab is employed, in 

 connection with a rubbing- 

 stone with flat faces, by 

 Kew Mexican tribes (Fig. 159, granite slab, sandstone rubber, Navajo Indians). 

 Somewhat partaking of the character of mortars arc good-sized stones, 

 mostly solid slabs, exhibiting on one of the faces, or on both, rather irregular 

 cup-shaped depressions, usually placed near each other. It is supposed that 



STONES HEARING CUP-SHAPED DEPRESSIONS Q) 



