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Miwok Material Culture: Indian Life of the Yosemite Region (1933) by S. A. Barrett and E. W. Gifford


HAMMERS, ANVILS AND COOKING STONES

The uses of the acorn cracker (plate XXXII, fig. 6), called lū'pű (P, N, C) and pasákkila (S), with its stone anvil, called ülü'we (P), ü'mme (N), tū'ka (C), and mū'laa (S), have already been outlined in speaking of vegetal foods.

Similarly the uses of the cooking stones (plate XXXII, figs. 1-4) have been described in speaking of the cooking of acorns and other foods.

A flattish, more or less rounded piece of stone was used as an anvil upon which to crack acorns. It usually had a slight, roughened depression on one or both of its flat surfaces, very likely to prevent the acorn from slipping when struck with the hammerstone. Anvils usually were not of steatite, which was apparently too soft and too readily cracked. A small mortar (University collection 1-10504) from Railroad flat, Calaveras county, has four cuppings on its bottom to serve as bases for cracking acorns.



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