Ground Stone and Cobble Tools are sometimes casual stones and sometimes well
shaped tools used for grinding, pounding, chopping, cooking, and abrading.
Cobble Tools
Cobble tools are stones and pebbles that are
casually used for various purposes such as hammer stones, chopping stones,
abrading stones, anvils, heating stones for basketry cooking or underground
baking, etc. As with cores and
flake tools, cobble tools were not readily recognized by Tribal monitors and few
were plotted during the monitoring process.
It is likely that many more cobble tools existed.
Six cobble hammer stones were recovered during the monitoring process (5 basalt
and 1 sandstone). Shapes
included cigar-shaped (0-9) globular shaped (0-94), and spatula shaped (0-379).
The cigar-shaped stone had evidence of battering on the end and the
globular stone had battering around the circumference.
Ground Stone
Shaped Manos (4)
Four shaped manos (3 sandstone and 1 basalt)
were recovered (0-159, 386, and 387).
Cobble Manos (1)
One sandstone cobble mano (unshaped) was
recovered (0-358).
Pestle, Flat-end (3)
Two basalt (0-97, 378) and one sandstone
flat-end pestles were recovered. One
was dislodged by a road grader after mine waste had already been removed from
the area (0-191).
Pestle, Round-end (1)
One sandstone round-end pestle was recovered
(0-98).
Bowl Mortar (1)
One sandstone mortar (0-389) was hit and
broken by road grading equipment after mine waste had already been removed from
the area.
Mortar Blank (1)
A large (15cm dia) basalt sphere with a
flattened end was graded out of the ground along the water-truck road leading to
the lake (0-263). It is possible
that this stone was a blank to be turned into a bowl mortar.
It may have also functioned as an anvil stone.
 Milling
Stones
Five manos were recovered indicating
widespread use of the mano and metate across LAK-76.
These tools are used to crack and grind hard seeds such as sage seeds,
grains (grass seeds), and pine nuts. Although
there is no way of determining the age of these tools, archaeological work
throughout California has revealed that the addition of the mano and metate to
the food processing tool kit occurred at the start of the last global warming
period (~8,000 B.P.).
Mortar and Pestle
Four pestles, one bowl mortar and one possible
mortar blank were recovered during the monitoring process.
These items indicate the processing of soft nuts (such as acorn and
buckeye). Although there is no way
of determining the age of these tools, archaeological work throughout California
has discovered that the addition of the mortar and pestle to the food processing
tool kit occurred about 5,000 B.P. In
some parts of California the heavy reliance on soft nuts gradually overcame the
use of hard seeds (grains) and the use of the mano and metate were gradually
phased out. In other areas, both
technologies were used side-by-side until the arrival of Europeans.
Both milling and pounding technologies require
the harvesting of seeds and nuts that become available in the fall
(September/October). The existence
of these tools indicates that LAK-76 was most likely inhabited during the fall
months.
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