WOW!! Look what I found

[hoodat]

I was picking up some rocks and stones in my garden when I came across this little Indian grinding stone. As you can see from the pics someone has laboriously worn grooves in both sides of this little rock to give them a better grip as they ground seeds. Otay Mesa (where I live) had a large population of Indians at one time but using this stone would have required a large rock or rock shelf to grind against. There is nothing like that on top of the mesa where this is found. My guess is that someone was up here gathering seeds and probably had this stone along with them till they returned to a place where they could be ground. It must have been dropped. The little white circle is the remains of a cocoon some critter had formed on the rock. It gives me an odd feeling to hold a stone tool like this for the first time it has been in a human hand in Lord only knows how long. I tried to get a pic of it in my hand but my battery picked just that time to run out. Maybe I'll add it when the battery is recharged.

 

[jojo54]

Neat!

 

[journey11]

That's awesome! How big is it?

I found a beautiful pink arrowhead this spring when I dug out an ugly bush that I wanted rid of (for a long time!) The tip was broken, but still, pretty cool! Neat reward for gettin' the job done. LOL

ETA: You've really got a good eye! That would have been a hard one to spot.

 

[Collector]

Hey, nice find hoodat. its neat how they fit in your hand. I have one i found several years ago over by the lake. I will try to get a pic of it and post on here so you can see it.

 

[hoodat]

I'd like to see it. It would be interesting to compare the two. Indians in this area used very few tools. They had no large animals to hunt so they used throwing sticks rather than bows and arrows. They lived mostly on seeds and small game such as rabbits and fish. I suppose the local ones also made trips to the shore for clams and mussels.

 

[Collector]

Here is the one I found on a fractured basalt hillside on the southeast end of the lake. it is about 1 foot long and both ends were used for grinding. I have went back looking for the bowl that this tool would have been used with, no luck though. I have seen 2 complete sets on the reservation i grew up on. this type of tool had many uses for the indians. I wonder how long that this tool laid on that hillside before I found it

 

[hoodat]

Mine is a lot smaller and cruder than that one but the shape has been improved by grooving so it fits the hand perfectly. The two places that would get pressure when grinding fall on the meaty parts of the hand at the base of the thumb and the pad just below your first two fingers. When you pick it up you instictively know how to hold it. It just fits right into place.
They didn't always use a bowl. Often they just used a depressed part of a big rock or rock shelf. A good spot was used over and over till it got worn deep into the rock. Look for a bowl shaped depression in the rock that has been worn smooth inside by grinding.
The Yellowstone area has a lot of those once you know what you're looking for. Often they are found in clusters as though a group of women would grind seeds at the same time, probably laughing and passing around tribal gossip as they did it to make a tedious task lighter.

 

[Collector]

hoodat I googled native american relics and saw plenty of stones like both of ours. the one i have is called a petzel yours is one of many grinding stones, and may have been mounted on a stick to be used for food prep or breaking open seeds or shell fish. Great pieces of history for sure.

 

[Ariel301]

Neat!

We live where an Indian trading camp used to be, and we find things like that sometimes. We've got a few grinding stones, a few of the bigger stones they used to grind on, some arrowheads, and tons of pottery shards. It's fun looking for those things and wondering about their history.