Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:20:26.852Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gyratory Crushers of the Sierra Pinacate, Sonora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Julian D. Hayden
Julian D. Hayden*
Affiliation:
Tucson, Arizona
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A unique grinding tool, termed a "gyratory crusher," was developed very early in Phase I of the Amargosan-Pinacateño occupation of the Sierra Pinacate, an isolated ecological and archaeological enclave in extreme north-western Sonora, Mexico. The gyratory crusher resembles a perforated mortar, either in slab or block form, in which a wooden pestle with a projection extending through the perforation in the mortar base was gyrated, the projection providing leverage against the under rim of the hole, to grind mesquite pods. The crusher underwent modification, and its use seems to have been discontinued with the disappearance of mesquite forests at the end of the Yuman I period, about A.D. 1100-1200. A few similar tools are reported late in time in the western Sierra Madre, Mexico, and also from early horizons in Iran and Israel. Recognition of the tool type may extend its known distribution in both the New World and the Old World.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , April 1969 , pp. 154 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Castetter, Edward F. and Bell, Willis H. 1942 Pima and Papago Indian Agriculture. Inter Americana Studies I. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Castetter, Edward F. and Bell, Willis H. 1951 Yuman Indian Agriculture. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hastings, James Rodney and Turner, Raymond M. 1965 The Changing Mile. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Haury, Emil W. 1950 The Sratigraphy and Archaeology of Ventana Cave, Arizona. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, and University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hayden, Julian D. 1967 A Summary Prehistory and History of the Sierra Pinacate, Sonora. American Antiquity, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 335–44. Salt Lake City.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hole, Frank, Flannery, Kent V., and Neely, James A. 1968 Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain: The Early Village Sequence in Khuzistan, Iran. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology. Washington, (in press)Google Scholar
Peelk, Robert 1941 Mining Engineers’ Handbook, 3rd Ed., Vol. 2, No. 28, p. 6. John Wiley and Son, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Russell, Frank 1908 The Pima Indians. 26th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington.Google Scholar
Sayles, E. B. and Antevs, Ernst 1941 The Cochise Culture. Medallion Papers, No. 29. Gila Pueblo, Globe.Google Scholar
Stekelis, M. and Yizraely, T. 1963 Excavations at Nahal Oren: Preliminary Report. Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1–12. Jerusalem.Google Scholar