MOKTAKS AND PESTLES. 



By C. 0. Abbott. 



The stone mortars, with and without accompanying pestles, from the 

 graves at Santa Barbara, vary greatly in size. The workmanship expended 

 upon them, more especially the larger examples, shows that their value as 

 vessels for preparing food was the principal object in view, and so that 

 they met that requirement, they were all that was desired. No attempt at 

 ornamentation by incised lines occurs in the series; a feature common 

 to a few of them, indicating attached decoration, will be noticed hereafter. 

 From other localities, however, examples with a few deeply incised lines 

 have occurred.* 



The majority of these mortars are made of a hard sandstone, but many 

 of them are cut out of boulders of basaltic rock. 



The general shape characterizing these vessels is like that of a modern 

 Wedgewood mortar; and the modifications from a typical specimen are 

 but slight. Fig. 18, and Fig. 2, Plate V. In many, the opening is the 

 greatest diameter; in others, it is equal to it; but the sides are extended 

 upward without inclination. Some few have the sides of the vessel inclin- 

 ing inwards. 



The size varies from nearly two feet in diameter by a foot in depth, to 

 examples as small as five inches in diameter by two inches only in depth. 



The largest specimen collected was obtained from the graves at La 

 Patera, and is of hard compact sandstone. It is regularly made, and very 

 symmetrical in shape.. The entire surface is pecked and subsequently 

 smoothed, or has been worn smooth by use, both exteriorly and interiorly. 



* Native Races of Pacific Coast; by H. H. Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 701. Also: Smithsonian Contri- 

 butions, No. 287, p. 39, Fig. 157. 



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