ASM Occasional Electronic Papers No. 1: Homol'ovi IV

Chapter Nine:
Groundstone, cont.

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Materials

Most of the artifacts were fashioned from local sandstone deposits of the Shinarump and Moenkopi formations (see Mckee 1954; Smith 1957): 66% from Moenkopi sandstone, 24% from Shinarump sandstone and 10% from various basalts and unknown materials sourced at least 15 km from the site.

Homol'ovi IV is situated on a butte composed predominantly of Moenkopi sandstone with remnant Shinarump cobbles around its base. Numerous buttes with combinations of Moenkopi and the overlying Shinarump formation rise above the local landscape and would have provided expedient sources of raw materials. Fratt (1991:62) found a higher percentage of Shinarump than Moenkopi ground stone objects at the site of Homol'ovi II. The opposite relation at Homol'ovi IV may be a function of the abundance of Moenkopi material on and near the site or the preferential salvaging of Shinarump artifacts for reuse elsewhere.

One butte of Shinarump on the east side of the river has been identified as a formal ground stone quarry. Flake debitage and tool blanks have been recovered there. This quarry may have been frequented by people living at Homol'ovi I and II.

Exceptional or exotic artifacts e.g., the axe, two grooved abraders, a shaft smoother, the argillite bowl mentioned before, vesicular cylinder, and two hoes come from at least 15 km away. A few artifacts such as the axe, shaft smoothers, one grooved abrader (a reused mano), and the vesicular cylinder were fashioned from igneous materials that may have come for the San Francisco Peaks or the Mogollon Mountains to the south.

Manos

The remains of 35 manos were recovered, four of which are whole. These artifacts were used initially along with metates in a stone-on-stone grinding kit. The end of only one mano was worn, indicative of use in a trough metate. Two other mano pieces whose ends were missing could not be identified as used with either trough or slab metates. Apparently none of the manos had been used in basin metates.

Four whole manos were recovered and one of these was an unused blank (See Table 9.2 and Figure 9.1). This blank come from the fill of structure 404, one of the last structures built at the pueblo. Two other whole manos also came from late structures. One worn mano was recovered from the roof fall of structure 301. This artifact was probably reused within the roof or wall architecture.

Figure 9.1 Whole, flat, one sided manos

Table 9.2 Whole Mano Measurements

Item	Length	Width	Thickness	Location
Mano Blank	28cm	11cm	4cm	Str 404
Worn Mano	25cm	11cm	1cm	Str 201
Worn Mano	23cm	10cm	2cm	Str 301
Worn Mano	19cm	8cm	3cm	Plaza Fill

Another whole but worn mano, exhibiting reuse as a lapstone, was recovered from the fill of structure 201. During its life history it had been worn flat on a slab metate, and when too thin for further grinding was reused as a netherstone for some other grinding task. This task resulted in a concave grinding surface. Pecking marks on this surface also demonstrate that it was periodically roughened up to give it a more abrasive texture (see Adams 1993). Only the mano recovered from plaza fill had been burned.

The mano remains (whole and fragmentary) exhibited cross-sections with one or two opposite surfaces, two adjacent surfaces, or three or four surfaces (see Table 9.3 and Figures 9.2 and 9.3), as well as a range of material textures, and sandstone types. One interesting hand stone was quarried from a sandstone deposit completely infused with limonite. Its powdery yellow appearance prompted the excavator to describe it as a limonite cake. This artifact has a loaf shaped cross-section and had been ground on a flat metate. Its use surface, however, was not worn smooth because grinding tended to pull of pieces off the surface rather than wear it down smoothly (see Adams 1993 discussion of adhesive wear). This artifact may have been used solely as a source of yellow pigment.

Figure 9.2 Whole and fragmentary two opposite sided manos

Figure 9.3 Adjacent two sided and three sided manos

Table 9.3 Mano Cross-Section Configurations Homol’ovi IV

Metate Type	One or Two Opposite Surfaces	Three or Four Surfaces	Two Adjacent Surfaces	Indeterminate	N
Flat	10	08	09	03	30
Trough	01	-	-	-	01
Unknown	-	02	-	02	04
Total	11	10	09	05	35

The variation in mano morphology as measured by cross-section shape was compared between manos recovered from the sites of Homol'ovi IV and Homol'ovi III (Tables 9.3 and 9.4). The distributions were almost identical in both samples. Although the Homol'ovi III assemblage has a higher percentage of trough manos, they were still relatively low in frequency. The much larger sample from Homol'ovi III, therefore, suggests that the low frequency at Homol'ovi IV is not anomalous. In general the patterns are quite similar.

Table 9.4 Mano Cross-Section Configurations Homol’ovi III

Metate Type	One or Two Opposite Surfaces	Three or Four Surfaces	Two Adjacent Surfaces	Indeterminate	N
Flat	63	40	43	08	154
Trough	07	06	02	01	16
Unknown	32	54	10	27	123
Total	102	100	55	36	293

In both assemblages manos designed for use on flat metates predominate. In both assemblages manos in various states of reduction occur in approximately equal proportions. It is interesting that in both site assemblages and probably in most pueblo assemblages the frequency of mano remains exceeds that of metate remains.

Metates

Seven metate fragments were recovered. Only three could be classified, and these belonged to flat metates (see Figure 9.4). Flat metates and grinding bins are components of a technology commonly found in post- A.D. 1000 ancestral Pueblo sites. Structure 2, a small subterranean room in the plaza, may have been a ceremonial grinding room comparable to earlier grinding structures found in the Pueblo II sites of Black Mesa (see chapter on Architecture).

Figure 9.4 Metates

Both historically and prehistorically, Pueblo peoples reused and recycled ground stone artifacts (Schlanger 1991:469). Given that the pueblo itself was not occupied for more than 25-30 years, it is important to realize that the use-life of a typical metate may have been longer than the pueblo itself. The long use-lives of such objects, the dismantling of some grinding bins, and the possibility of migration to nearby settlements (Homol'ovi I) suggest that the short occupation of Homol'ovi IV would have mitigated against finding whole metates at the site. Instead the fragments recovered may actually be the residue of artifacts manufactured in the earliest years of the occupation and perhaps earlier.

Five of the fragments were recovered from plaza fill contexts while two others were recovered from the floor and fill contexts of rooms. Two of the plaza fragments had been burned prior to deposition. One unburned piece was recovered from the disturbed fill of structure 301, and another burned fragment was found on the floor of structure 2. The burned pieces were blackened on all sides prompting the hypothesis that they had been reused inside hearth features as either heating stones or pot rests. Because they were all Shinarump sandstone possessing larger grain sizes and opaline-silica cement, these pieces might have been more resistant to thermal shock than other types of stone.

Two other fragmentary artifacts within the miscellaneous category were labeled "mano or metate fragments." One of these had been burned and was recovered from the secondary refuse on the floor of structure 10. The other was unburned and taken from the fill above plaza surface 4.

Abraders

Four grooved abraders, and six rectangular flat abraders (sensu Woodbury 1954:98) were recovered during excavations (See Figure 9.5). One of the grooved abraders resembles what Woodbury (1954:106) called a shaft smoother. The rectangular abraders were small with the largest less than 8 cm long. One flat abrader and one grooved abrader were recovered from structure 201. The other eight abraders were found in the plaza fill. One flat and two grooved abraders were burned.

Figure 9.5 Grooved and flat abraders

The six flat abraders were manufactured from soft Moenkopi sandstone. Two of the groo-ved abraders were also fashioned from soft Moenkopi sandstone and can be contrasted with the third and fourth abraders, which were made from a hard quartzite river cobble and from vesicular basalt. The softness of both the grooved and flat abraders indicates that some of these artifacts were used on softer materials such as bone or wood. Previous experimental grinding in similar soft materials (Adams 1989) suggests that such wear would not have taken long to produce and provide a good example of expedient technology. The quartzite and volcanic abraders could have been used with harder materials. In step with the reused nature of this assemblage, the vesicular basalt grooved abrader was a reused one-sided mano.

The shaft straightener was also made from a hard black volcanic material (Figure 9.6). Its fractured surface, distinctive parent material, as well as rich groove sheen helped to distinguish it from other grooved artifacts in the assemblage. It is a working hypothesis that its particular coloring and fractures were the result of repeated heating during use. When heated the groove would have facilitated the straightening of arrow shafts (see Adams 1979). A Shinarump sandstone cobble had a polish that Adams (1986) associated with hide processing. The soft, oily hides produced a distinctive sheen to the stone used to stiffen the hide (Figure 9.6).

Figure 9.6 Shaft straightener and hide polisher

Chapter: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

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