Northern CA Yana/N Maidu Mortar

[Sage hen jack]

Found 48 years ago by a rancher on his private Ranch in Lassen foothills east of Chico CA. It weighs about 45lbs. The Mortar is about 8” deep. I’m guessing it was used for hundreds of years grinding Acorns along a foothills stream. The pestle was not found with it. The original pestle probably would have been 4” longer!!

[Artifascination]

That’s awesome!

[BabaORiley]

Wow that's a great recovery there. The NA's in your area really utilized the vast amounts of acorns and walnuts that inhabited the area. That is a museum type piece.

[Hoss]

Beautiful artifact . Thanks for sharing the story and pictures.

[Ron Kelley]

WOW The find of a lifetime. A beautiful Mortar that was used for everyday life is awesome.

[clovisoid]

Awesome combo, a classic relic set from your area.

The original pestle would have been 4” longer!! I’ve seen a few pestles like that. Usually Sell for few hundred $.

I’ve been to several auctions where the pestles end up being more expensive than the mortar.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Outstanding ! I tried a acorn once, gag !

[clovisoid]

Was it soaked to get the bitter tannins out, or was it just eaten raw? I’ve had pancakes made with acorn flour that were really good.

Raw there are only a couple of varieties that are edible, most will taste bad and bind up your intestines for about a month.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

No, I just tried it to see what the deer found so attractive about them..It was just awful ....

[tomf]

That's a beauty. It's so well shaped and manufactured.




Here's one I found a while ago, that at first I was uncertain about.

Since I have recently found two mortars that can't be mistaken, I feel more qualified to name this one an artifact.

It's not a finished piece but I think it's interesting as it hints at the technique of pecking the stone prior to rotary grinding.

The picture was taken in the rain and is not great but if you look carefully you can see peck marks that have been partially ground out.






It's interesting that you mention Chinese made lava rock walls.

There is one near by to me and I've always been curious about it.

People have told me it was left over from mining, which if true, probably means it was built by Chinese labor (though actually it could possibly have been Indian, as they were enslaved by miners often).


However, I've wondered, since reading that Native Americans sometimes used blinds and other constructions for hunting, whether it was actually built by them.



It's about 20 to 30' long, and uses a natural spine-like stone outcrop as it's base which has been built up with the addition of medium sized boulders. It's about 3' high and very crude.

It's runs around the edge of a small rise that overlooks a well used animal trail that leads to a creek.

It's hard to imagine why miners would build it. It doesn't lead anywhere and is not immediately adjacent to any workings. What's it for?

Could it, in fact, be a permanent hunting blind (or even a rampart for defence) built by NAs?

[clovisoid]

That looks like more of a nutting stone used to crack/shell/husk nuts among other things. The mortar was likely used to process the shelled nuts.

On the stone wall, most ancient hunting blinds I’ve seen are just enough to provide cover. 3 feet high by 30 feet long is huge.