Fig. 18 (202-8394). Fragment of a Mortar made of Stone. From among covering boulders of grave No. 42 (4) of adult in sand at the western edge of Columbia River about twelve miles above the head of Priest Rapids. ¼ nat. size.
Mortars. Mortars made of stone for crushing food, such as dried salmon, other meat and berries, were not uncommon in this region and pestles of the same material were numerous. Flat oval pebbles were found scattered on the surface of a village site on the west bank of the Columbia at the head of Priest Rapids, and were probably used as lap stones or as objects upon which to crush food. A somewhat circular one (202-8295) about 230 mm. in diameter has a notch, formed by chipping from one side, opposite one naturally water-worn, which suggests that it may have been used as a sinker; but it seems more likely that it was simply an anvil or lap stone. Similar pebbles were used in the Thompson River region,[80] some of them having indications of pecking or a slight pecked depression in the middle of one or both sides. In the Nez Perce region to the east, basketry funnels were used in connection with flat stones for mortars. These funnels were of rather crude coil technique.[81] Another specimen (202-8292b) found at the same place is merely a water-worn boulder somewhat thinner at one end than at the other, the surface of which apparently has been rubbed from use as a mortar or milling stone. A few large chips have been broken from the thinner edge. Still another specimen (202-8294) from here is a fragment of a pebble only 120 mm. in diameter with a saucer-shaped depression about 10 mm. deep, in the top.
Fig. 19. Mortar made of Stone. From the Yakima Reservation near Union Gap. ½ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44455, 2-4. Original in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)
A somewhat disk-shaped pebble of gray lava 295 mm. in diameter with a saucer-shaped depression in the top and a large pecked pit in the bottom (20.0-3344) was collected at Fort Simcoe by Dr. H. J. Spinden. A fragment of a mortar about 190 mm. in diameter with a nearly flat or slightly convex base and a depression 50 mm. deep in the top (202-8293) was found on the surface near the head of Priest Rapids and another fragment nearly twice as large, the base of which is concave over most of its surface and shows marks of pecking, apparently the result of an attempt to make it either quite flat or concave like many other mortars that have a concavity in each side, is shown in Fig. 18. It was found among the covering boulders of the grave of an adult, No. 42(4), in the sand at the western edge of the Columbia River about twelve miles above the head of Priest Rapids. The mortar shown in Fig. 19, is hollowed in the top of a symmetrical, nearly circular pebble and has a convex base. It was found on the Yakima Reservation near Union Gap and is in the collection of Mr. Janeck.[82] This reminds us of a similar mortar found in the Thompson River region,[83] but such simple mortars made from pebbles are rarely found in the Nez Perce region to the east.[84] The mortar shown in Fig. 20 also from the same place and in the same collection has a nearly flat base and three encircling grooves.[85] These grooves find their counterpart in four encircling incisions on the little mortar found in the Thompson River region.[86]
Fig. 20. Mortar made of Stone. From the Yakima Reservation near Union Gap. ½ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44455, 2-4. Original in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)
The specimen shown in Fig. 116, which may be considered as a dish rather than a mortar, was seen in the collection of Mrs. Hinman who obtained it from Priest Rapids. It is apparently of sandstone, 150 mm. in diameter, 50 mm. high, the upper part being 38 mm. high and of disk shape with slightly bulging sides which are decorated with incised lines,[87] the lower part being also roughly disk shaped 64 mm. by 76 mm. in diameter by about 12 mm. high with slightly convex bottom and edges curved out to the base of the upper part. There is a disk shaped dish in the top 100 mm. in diameter by 12 mm. in depth.[88]
The animal form shown in Fig. 125 bears a mortar or dish in its back. The object is 203 mm. in length, 88 mm. high and 113 mm. wide. The length of the bowl is 88 mm., the width 70 mm., and the depth 38 mm. The object is made of porous lava and was secured from an Indian who claimed to have found it in a grave near Fort Simcoe on the Yakima Reservation two miles below Union Gap which is immediately below Old Yakima.[89]
It seems strange that so many of the mortars are broken since they would be hard to break. It will be remembered that one of the broken mortars came from a grave and it may be that the others were on or in graves but had been removed in some way. My general impression is that mortars are much more numerous among archaeological finds both in this region and in the interior of British Columbia than on the coast.Pestles. In addition to the probable use of pestles with flat stones or mortars with basket funnels, some of them, especially where nearly flat or concave on the striking head as in the Thompson River region to the north and on the coast may also have been used as hammers for driving wedges, splitting wood and like industries, if indeed they were not made solely for the latter uses. Some of the pestles differ from those found either to the north or on the coast, many of them being much longer, although Mr. James Teit informs me that very long pestles are occasionally found in the Thompson River region. He has seen four, and heard of one or two more. One two feet long was found in the Nicola Valley about 1905. One of the pestles of the Yakima Valley has a top in the form of an animal hoof, as is shown in Fig. 124. Others like animal heads are shown in Figs. 31, 33-35. The range of forms of pestles is shown in Figs. 21 to 35. The specimens shown in Figs. 22 to 28 inclusive are apparently all of the shorter type, while those shown in the remaining figures are variations of the longer type. By far the greater number of pestles, about forty, are of the type shown in Fig. 21, and of these two thirds come from the vicinity of Priest Rapids. They are merely natural pebbles, all more or less of suitable size, shape and material, which have been used as pestles until one end has become flattened. Some of them are also flattened on the top, the battered ends often giving the only indication that they were used. Such as were not of exactly the right form for grasping have had their excrescences or the more projecting surfaces removed by pecking. A few of these objects seem to have been made from small basaltic columns, the corners of which have been pecked into a more suitable shape. Some of them have been pecked so that they taper gradually from the small upper end to the base. The specimen considered as a "slave-killer" and shown in Fig. 69, may have been used as a pestle. Simple short cylindrical or conoid pebbles, only slightly changed from their natural form, are used for pestles in the Nez Perce region to the east.[90]
Fig. 21 (202-8281). Pestle made of Stone. From the surface, near the head of Priest Rapids. ½ nat. size.
Fig. 22 (202-8263). Pestle pecked from Stone. Probably unfinished. From the surface, near the head of Priest Rapids. ¼ nat. size.
Fig. 23 (202-8399). Pestle pecked from Stone. Probably unfinished. From the surface, eight miles above the head of Priest Rapids. ½ nat. size.
A pebble 559 mm. long by 152 mm. wide and 114 mm. thick, with rounded corners and ends, found by Mr. John Lacy near the Yakima River in North Yakima, has longitudinal grooves pecked in three sides to where they begin to round over to form the end, and a similar groove, except that it is only about 101 mm. long, in the middle of the fourth side.[91] These grooves were probably made as part of a process of grooving and battering down the intervening ridges in order to bring the specimen into a desired form. Similarly grooved pebbles found on the northern part of Vancouver Island were explained to Professor Franz Boas as having been implements in such process of manufacture. So far as I am aware, Prof. Boas' announcement of this at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was the first explanation of the sort of grooving or fluting of specimens found in northwestern America. One similar large specimen (20.0-3343) found at Lewiston, Idaho, in the Nez Perce region by Dr. H. J. Spinden, bears two longitudinally pecked grooves in addition to pecking on much of its surface. A yellowish gray boulder about 349 mm. long, nearly circular in sections and with rounded ends, from Priest Rapids, bears a pecked groove 82 mm. long by 31 mm. wide and 6 mm. deep across the middle of one side. This may have been made to cut it into the length desired for a pestle.[92] This specimen is much too large to be considered as the handle of a digging stick, similar to the object from the Nez Perce region considered as such by Spinden.[93]
The object shown in Fig. 22, one of those from the surface near the head of Priest Rapids, judging from the battered end, has apparently been used as a pestle, yet it is still apparently in process of manufacture into a form somewhat like that shown in Fig. 27. The pecking at the top is possibly the result of an attempt to remove that portion of the rock, while the transversely pecked surface seems to be a beginning towards the formation of the shaft of the pestle, whereas the longitudinal groove between these two surfaces was necessary to reduce an excrescence on the rim of what was apparently intended to be the knob at the top of the pestle. If this supposition be true, when finished, this object would have a large striking head resembling more in shape and size those of the pestles of the region near The Dalles than any yet found in this region. The specimen shown in Fig. 23 is much more clearly an unfinished pestle. The ends are pecked flat and the entire middle section has been pecked, apparently to reduce it to the desired size of the shaft. It seems that the striking head of this specimen, when finished, would be rather short. It was found on the surface eight miles above the head of Priest Rapids.
The pestle shown in Fig. 24 has a conoid body with no striking head and in this respect resembles the pestles of the Thompson River country;[94] but the top is roughly disk-shaped, being neither hat-shaped nor in the form of an animal head, as are most pestles of the Thompson region nor is it exactly of the shape of the typical pestles of northern and western Vancouver Island.[95] The material is a soft gray stone which shows the marks of the pecking by means of which it was shaped.
Fig. 24. Pestle made of Stone. From Priest Rapids. ½ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44535, 9-1. Original in the collection of Mr. Mires.)
Fig. 25. Pestle made of Stone. From Priest Rapids. ½ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44535, 9-1. Original in the collection of Mr. Mires.)
Fig. 25 illustrates a pestle, the top of which is broken off. There are two grooves encircling the somewhat cylindrical striking head. The material is a light blue hard porphoritic rock. These two specimens are from Priest Rapids.[96] The pestle shown in Fig. 26 is from the Yakima River, five miles below Old Yakima. It has a hat-shaped top and a cylindrical striking head a little larger at the top than at the bottom, is somewhat like the typical pestles of the Thompson River region,[97] and is in the collection of Mr. York. Another has a slightly wider brim to the hat-shaped top, a body concave in outline and the striking head is larger at the top than at the bottom, while a third has a medium sized brim, a body bulging in the middle and a long cylindrical striking head. The last two specimens are in the collection of Mr. Janeck, and are from the Yakima Valley within eight miles of North Yakima.[98]
The specimen shown in Fig. 27 was found in a grave with beads and resembles the typical pestles of Lytton except that it has no nipple on the top, which is of the shape of the tops of the typical pestles of northern and western Vancouver Island. Another of nearly the same shape but less regular was found on the surface of the Yakima Valley within eight miles of North Yakima. A third specimen 234 mm. long, also found within the above mentioned limits, is made of a concavely flaring pebble. A groove is pecked part way around near the top as if to carve the knob and begin the reduction of the top of the shaft. There is also a pecked surface on one side near the base, apparently the beginning of an attempt to form a striking head by first removing irregularities. The one shown in Fig. 28 was found within eight miles of North Yakima and is of rather unusual shape, having a short striking head of the shape of the typical pestles of northern and western Vancouver Island. The slightly bulging body and exceedingly small, nearly flat knob at the top are entirely different from those of the pestles usually found in any of this area, or the country adjacent to it on the north and west. These four specimens are in the collection of Mr. Janeck.[99]
There are found in the Nez Perce region[100] short pestles with dome-shaped tops, cylindrical bodies and rather long striking heads of the form of triangular or quadrangular prisms with rounded corners slightly larger at the top than at the bottom[101] and such pestles with hat-shaped tops, although one has a flat top, slightly expanding shafts and long striking heads, larger at the top than at the bottom.
Fig. 26. Pestle made of Stone. From Yakima River five miles below Old Yakima. ½ nat. size. (Drawn from a sketch. Original in the collection of Mr. York.)
Fig. 27. Pestle made of Stone. From a grave in the Yakima Valley. About ½ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44454, 2-3. Original in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)
Fig. 28. Pestle made of Stone. From the surface in the Yakima Valley within eight miles of North Yakima. About ½ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44454, 2-3. Original in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)
Fig. 29 is the first of those showing the longer type of pestle from the Yakima region. This specimen was found at Satus on the Yakima Reservation near Old Yakima and is in the collection of Mr. York. The top is somewhat spherical and the body elongated. Its conoid shape may class it with the one shown in Fig. 24. It somewhat reminds us of the pestles of the Santa Catalina Islands of California, but until we have a more definite knowledge of the forms in the vast intervening area, this resemblance must be considered as merely a coincidence, especially since long simple conoid pestles are found in the Nez Perce region to the east.[102] A somewhat similar pestle in Mr. York's collection is 408 mm. long, and has a tapering body, circular in sections, a knob at the top about the size of the base and a convex striking face. It was found at Fort Simcoe.
The pestle shown in Fig. 30 is made of sandstone, was found at Priest Rapids and is in the collection of Mrs. Hinman. The shaft is a long cylinder, expanding somewhat towards the base which is only slightly convex. Like the preceding, it has no striking head. It has a hemispherical top, is unusually large and is decorated with an encircling line of circles and dots. There is also a circle and dot in the top. This decoration is again mentioned in the consideration of art on p. 130.[103]
The pestle shown in Fig. 31 is 355 mm. long. It has a conoid body perhaps more pronounced than the one shown in Fig. 29 but much less typical than the one shown in Fig. 24. The top is apparently intended to represent an animal head. It is made of very hard breccia and well polished. At each side of the lower part of the body is a design made by four parallel zigzag grooves, further discussed on p. 132. It was found in the Yakima Valley, and is in the collection of Mr. Janeck.[104] A pestle figured by Spinden, as from the Nez Perce Indians,[105] is somewhat similar to this in that it has a knob protruding slightly to one side, but there is a notch or groove made longitudinally in the top of this knob.
The pestle shown in Fig. 32 might perhaps be considered as a war club. It was found at Priest Rapids and is in the collection of Mr. Mires. The top is somewhat flat and smoothed. There is a groove around the specimen near this end. From here it constricts gradually to the lower end which is broken off. It was made from a triangular piece of gray basalt, probably a column, the natural angles and parts of the faces of which have been reduced by pecking.[106]
The specimen shown in Fig. 33 from the Yakima Valley, is in the collection of Mr. Janeck and is 630 mm. long. The top apparently represents an animal head indicated by three nipples the larger of which is interpreted as representing the nose, the others as indicating the ears. The body is of circular cross section and expands evenly to a cylindrical striking head 70 mm. in diameter by 76 mm. long.[107]
Fig. 29. Pestle made of Stone. From Satus on the Yakima Reservation near Old Yakima. ½ nat. size. (Drawn from a sketch. Original in the collection of Mr. York.)
Fig. 30. Pestle made of Sandstone. From Priest Rapids. ½ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44537, 9-3. Original in the collection of Mrs. Hinman.)
Fig. 31. Pestle made of Stone. From the Yakima Valley. ¼ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44502, 6-3. Original in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)
A long pestle with a knob at the top which is divided into four pyramidal or dome-shaped nipples was found at Five Mile Rapids on Snake River and was seen in Mr. Owen's collection. The next figure represents a stone pestle of somewhat similar shape but more specialized. It was found in the Yakima Valley and is in the collection of Mr. Janeck. It is 590 mm. long. The top is roughly the form of the fustrum of a cone, being circular in cross section and gradually expanding downward, but it is somewhat celt-shaped, the sides for some distance being ground off nearly flat. They approach each other more closely towards the front than they do towards the back. In each of these surfaces there is an incision which represents one side of an animal's mouth and a pecked dot indicating an eye. The tip of the nose is broken off. Across the curved part behind the flat surfaces or on the back of this animal head are four incisions. Below this portion the object is circular in section until near its middle, or 178 mm. from the top, where there is a band roughly sub-pentagonal in section with rounded corners 88 mm. long. Following this band it is nearly cylindrical, being 57 mm. in diameter for 178 mm. until it expands suddenly into the striking head which is unusually bulging, 108 mm. long by 64 mm. in diameter.[108]
The object 498 mm. long shown in Fig. 35 is made of steatite, material seemingly unsuited by its softness for a pestle, and may possibly be a war club. Mr. McCandless, in whose collection it is, calls the material a soft sandstone which he says is found at the head of the Wenatchie River. He says the specimen is from Lake Chelan and that he obtained it from a man above Wenatchie on the Columbia River. This man told him that he secured it from Chief Moses' tribe on Lake Chelan, and that the Indians there call it a war club and a family heirloom. The upper end is of the form of a truncated pyramid with two flat sides, two bulging edge's and rounded corners. It shows peck marks and is engraved as described under art, on p. 124, and is said by the Indians to represent the head of a snake. The shaft is circular in cross section and gradually enlarges towards the base where it suddenly constricts. The specimen has been polished by the natural sand blast.[109]
The noise of the women at one of the Nez Perce villages, pounding roots, reminded Lewis of a nail factory.[110] Beyond the Nez Perce country which bounds this area on the east, according to Spinden,[111] the use of stone pestles disappears until the region of the Great Lakes is reached, but I have seen pestles in collections in Wyoming which are said to have been found in that state.Rollers. Another class of specimens considered as pestles or rollers is shown in Figs. 36 and 37. These do not seem to have been used as pestles.
Fig. 32. Pestle made of Stone. From Priest Rapids. ¼ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44534, 8-12. Original in the collection of Mr. Mires.)
Fig. 33. Pestle made of Stone. From the Yakima Valley. ¼ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 41502, 6-3. Original in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)
Fig. 34. Pestle made of Stone. From the Yakima Valley. ¼ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44502, 6-3. Original in the collection of Mr. Janeck.)
Fig. 35. Pestle made of Steatite. From Lake Chelan. ¼ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44507, 6-8. Original in the collection of Mr. McCandless.)
Fig. 36. Pestle or Roller made of Stone. From Priest Rapids. ¼ nat. size. (Drawn from photograph 44537, 9-3. Original in the collection of Mrs. Hinman.)
Fig. 37 (202-8197). Pestle or Roller made of Stone. From the surface, about one mile east of Fort Simcoe. ¼ nat. size.
The one shown in Fig. 36 from Priest Rapids is in the collection of Mrs. Hinman. The convex ends of this cylindrical form present the natural surface of a pebble and they are not battered. The material is a yellowish quartzite or closely allied rock. It is 457 mm. long, 75 mm. in diameter and the entire cylindrical surface has been pecked apparently to bring it to form. If it had been used as a pestle the ends would show the signs of battering or grinding. The cylindrical surface does not seem to show any signs of its having been used as a roller or grinder. It may possibly be a pestle in process of manufacture although it seems very strange that so much work should have been expended on the cylindrical surface in a region where natural pebbles very nearly of this shape were common.[112] The specimen shown in Fig. 37 is apparently made of basalt and was found on the surface about a mile east of Fort Simcoe. The ends are considerably chipped and one of them has apparently been somewhat battered since. If the object were used as a pestle the chipping of the ends is unusually great. The cylindrical surface has been formed by pecking except in one place where the natural surface shows. This bit of natural surface is such that it suggests the specimen to have been made of a prismatic basaltic column. While these two specimens may have been intended for pestles, it seems possible that they were made for rollers. Several such objects made of stone were seen in Mr. Owen's collection. He says that they were used like rolling pins for crushing camas and kouse roots in making bread. Both of these roots were extensively used in the Nez Perce region to the east.[113]
Fig. 38 (202-8157). Fragment of Hearth of Fire Drill. From Grave No. 10 (5) in a rock-slide about half a mile above the mouth of Naches River. ½ nat. size.
Fish Knives. No fish knives made of slate were found, as in the Thompson River region, at Lytton,[114] rarely at Kamloops,[115] and commonly on the coast at Fraser Delta,[116] Comox,[117] and Nanaimo.[118]Fire Making. The method of making fire formerly employed in this region is suggested by a fragment of the hearth of a fire drill found in grave No. 10 (5) in a rock-slide about one half a mile above the mouth of the Naches River and is shown in Fig. 38. It is made of porous wood, of light cellular structure, possibly cottonwood. This is similar to the fire drill hearths of the Thompson River region,[119] where I have seen the Thompson River Indians make fire with the palm drill, using cottonwood root for the hearth. In the Nez Perce region to the east, also, fire was made with the palm drill, the hearth stick being of the root of the light leaved willow or the stem of "smoke wood." It was of the shape of the hearth here described. The twirling stick was made of the dead tips of red fir.[120]Caches. A number of small circular holes about four feet in diameter, encircled by a slight ridge, as mentioned on p. 15, were seen which are possibly the remains of ancient food caches. The Nez Perce Indians in the region to the east referred to a field at Kamiah, near the mouth of Lawyer's Creek which has the appearance of being "hilled" like an old hop field, as being the site of winter cache pits.[121]Boiling. Natural pebbles were plentiful in the river bottoms near the village sites. Such were no doubt used in boiling food in baskets or boxes, as fragments of burned and cracked pebbles were also found while pottery was entirely absent. These facts suggest that it was the custom to boil the food in baskets or even in boxes as on the coast to the west. This idea is strengthened by the fact that in the Nez Perce region to the east, watertight coiled baskets were regularly used in cooking.[122] We may naturally suppose that roasting before open fires was also customary in this region. No fireplaces such as were probably used in this area and are found in the Nez Perce region,[123] were recognized by us, although beds of clam shells previously mentioned, may indicate the sites of ancient hearths.
FOOTNOTES:
