Well it was a little rough going, it seems there were way more stonetools than points in this area of the camp! Dug hard for a day and a half and had a pile of hammerstones and mano's.











I might catch up with that guy from Cutback!



Definetly my find of the dig!

Nice digs! I really like that drill

Kinda hard to find them up here in Cut Bank right now, too much snow on the ground. You got some mighty fine finds right there.

Good deal, nice artifacts.
Whenever I see a paddle drill like yours I think it's been purpose made for a special project rather than made out of an existing dart point...

One more thing about your finds that I find intriguing...including a few other sites over the yrs that have found a large number of Manos ;;;;

I can see some Manos being a treasured personal kitchen appliance, like a good (blender). Many show extensive use and are pecked around to fit the hand...
Many made out of granite & quartz...Certainly a 3 pound item that must be carried from camp to camp when it's moving time....

WHERE ARE ALL THE MATATES

All the matates I have seen are just random flat natural stone and can weigh from 10 to 50lbs +........Hardly not the treasured item the family would cart over hill & dale..

Where are all the Matates

At this camp I have found pieces of one that looked like it had been in the fire.

What are the chances of some matates being made of wood?

Those Manos are killer. I like camp stuff. You know they were used every day. We all like points but the camp stuff is good find. Keep the pics coming. For those of us diggers working in Chicago your postings are the best!

Those Manos are killer. I like camp stuff. You know they were used every day. We all like points but the camp stuff is good find. Keep the pics coming. For those of us diggers working in Chicago your postings are the best!

Nice finds! It is strange how many matates are found. I have only found one in all my digs at numerous sites that I dug years ago. To bad it was back in the day when technology didnt allow us to take pictures at the site. My brother and I took turns packing it about 1 mile back to our vehicle.It was an awesome find though, with the grinder found still in the metate,like it had just been used.It weighed 100 lbs.

Yeah, I feeling for you both, heck its dipping to near 30 deg. here and high 60 tomorrow. Big fall cold snap.

Finding a Matate and mano together is a amazing find and deserve the long haul home!!!

No one is touching the wooden matates!

Thanks for the looks.

I would say no on the wooden matate.I don't see how a wooden surface would have had a rough enough surface texture for grinding purposes.Just my speculative opinon. Why did you find something intresting?

Just looking at the number of manos found versus the limited amount of matates.
It was my thought that maybe not all grinding surface were rock.
Just thinking outside the box.

That may well be part of the explanation especially for the "nutting stone" base. A big piece of wood could serve just as well as the back of a stone metate.
Nother factor that occurs to me, The house frau might have prefered to use a clean area of bedrock that will be impossible to find. OR, make use of a
large suitable rock well off from the main camp that will never be excavated....
Last thought ( for this morn ) is that a matate would only be of value for part of the year when a particular crop was ripe for harvesting and eating.
Large quantities may be from winter camps where they were deliberately junked
as extra baggage, then plan to make new ones "next season"
. . . . . .

Well according to this article it seems wood could be used..although they are calling it a mortar not a metate.If you wade through the technical terms it's pretty intresting.





http://www.pcas.org/Vol32N4/324Schr.pdf

That is a good read, another reason for using wood for grinding in this specific area might be the lack of larger good quality rocks,here there is alot of Iron ore rocks that is somewhat soft. I have found one large matate which was made from schitkz (spelling?) very hard, which I believe the source was at least 3 miles away. Further to the east there maybe more sandstone available.

The most tasty flour/meal was seasoned while grinding on a good piece of mesqite or hickory!!

Thanks,

The 3rd pic down might be a Wilson point, which is considered yo be late paleo.