When Mortars Speak Volumes: Assessing the Influence of Mortar Cavity Size on Processing Efficiency

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Formal Models and Experimental Archaeology of Ground Stone Milling Technology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Among the various categories of ground stone technology in precolonial California, the mortar has a celebrated role in the shift to a subsistence economy dominated by acorn processing and consumption. The size and shape of mortars, both bedrock and portable, facilitated pulverizing and grinding of these and other resources. It seems logical, therefore, to assume that larger mortar cavities would be more productive than smaller ones. The experiment presented here was designed and conducted to test this hypothesis; it aims to determine whether increasing the depth and width of a mortar cavity improves acorn flour production. While there are various constraints to making larger mortars (such as time, material, labor/exertion, mobility, etc.), understanding the efficiency of mortars with greater volume is an essential first step to assessing the cost-benefit trade-off inherent to the design choices that were made by Native Americans.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Formal Models and Experimental Archaeology of Ground Stone Milling Technology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33650