Elem Ground Stone

Hammer Stone
Hammer Stone
Manos (shaped and unshaped)
Pestles
Mortar, hit and broken by road grader
Basalt sphere (anvil stone or mortar blank)
Mano and metate
Mortar and pestle

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 (unshaped) 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).

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.

Mano and Metate

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.