The Archaeology of the Yakima ValleySmith, Harlan Ingersoll
History
The Archaeology of the Yakima Valley
Smith, Harlan Ingersoll
Yakima River Valley (Wash.) -- Antiquities
[Illustration: Fig. 19. Mortar made of Stone. From the Yakima
Reservation near Union Gap. 1/2 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]
[82] Museum negative no. 44455. 2-4.
[83] Smith, (c) Fig. 342.
[84] Spinden, Figs. 20 and 22, Plate VI.
[85] Museum negative no. 44455. 4-2.
[86] Smith, (c), Fig. 343.
[Illustration: Fig. 20. Mortar made of Stone. From the Yakima
Reservation near Union Gap. 1/2 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]
[87] See p. 125.
[88] Museum negative no. 44537. 9-3.
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