Modeling Time Investment Trade-Offs for Stone and Wooden Mortars

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.

California archaeology and ethnography record instances of mortars made from wood, as well as stone. Differences in raw material availability, intended uses, and mobility are major factors that could contribute to preferential manufacture of wooden mortars versus similarly shaped stone mortars. Although previous research finds that wooden mortars take fewer hours to produce than comparably sized stone mortars, the relative costs and benefits of mortars made from these materials remains understudied. Here, we formalize the investment trade-offs between stone and wooden milling tools, using experimentally obtained return rates for processing acorns (*Quercus kelloggii) and Indian ricegrass seeds (*Orzyopsis hymenoides). This research attempts to address the subsistence and mobility patterns under which wooden mortars would be preferred to stone ones.

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 31987