More finds from Indiana County. This is by far the largest Native American Grinding Stone I have ever run across.
As you can see - they couldn't have picked a better boulder. It even has a small step like feature - covered up now by forest debris.
That's Butch Laney who built and runs
http://www.naeskahonitown.com/inschool.html out in Black Lick. The bowl measures about 3 feet across and goes down about 2 feet at its deepest point.
Countless generations of Native American woman spent hours on their hands and knees grinding acorns and chestnuts in this bowl - trying their best to feed their families and stay one step ahead of starvation. They would make a type of breadlike pattie out of the nutmeal. But the main drawback of eatting to many acorns - Tannin builds up in your system and most Natives died while in their 40's.
Great rock! The hole is so large, I think this could also be a hole where food was boiled by adding hot rocks that would be heated and reheated on a fire. The posture of the person in the picture shows how uncomfortable it would be to use this hole just for grinding.
ReplyDeleteMy family came over in the 1630s, so that makes me a definite "native american". As for being a Pennsylvanian indian, that I am not. I too love finding things like this out in the woods. There's a field near by my grandparents farm that turns up arrow heads every time they till the ground.
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