why so close together? any opinions

[longtimefree]

ran across this site the other day and was confused as to why they were so close, my thinking says they needed to have them shallow so they kept moving , but that dosnt seem right ?????

[George Looney]

Sounds good to me Longtime,,all of ours around here are on a single stone,,come to think of it,,most were used on both sides,,maybe because they didn't like them to get very deep,,this is interesting.

[Flyjunkie]

I have read some views that multiple Mortars or depressions in a boulder are simply a "work Station" and each depression belonged to an individual woman (the grinding of Acorns was Womens work here in California).

thought why they are literally on top of each other at that location is confusing..??

Maybe it was a "Class Room" and the young girls were instructed by a Elder woman as to proper grinding of acorns... ??? Just an Idea...

That is a Great location nonetheless.....

[ghost recon]

Good question. I think your opinion makes sense Longtime.

[manoman]

It could have been such a good work station location wise and surface wise that it was deliberately used like that to conserve the working area.

[Dennis]

Unusual to have that many shallow depressions maybe a form of cupules a form of rain rocks ceremonial use to start or stop rain .

[questor]

Those would seem to close together to me for each one to have been used by separate individuals.

I'm wondering about doing up lot's of little batches of whatever all at once, before sweeping the whole works into and mostly filling the winnowing basket in a big batch approach, to whatever seed or nut source it is you are grinding/crushing on.

[longtimefree]

in these, even though they are close together you can tell there was enough room for someone beside you, in the first pic all the holes appear to more then likely belong to one person, occasionally i run across very deep matates and have to wonder what they were used for and what was used to make the holes so deep , some are at least 2' deep ,

[Rockit Man]

that is an amazing number of bedrock mortars. I would like to see your tool collection.

[eddies]

very cool pics,