Refocusing the Role of Food-Grinding Tools as Correlates for Subsistence Strategies in the U.S. Southwest

Abstract

Food-grinding tools in both the New World and the Old World have long been used as subsistence indicators. Previously, variations in tool size and material texture were presumed to have been related to processing differences between wild and domestic foods. However, recent research conclusions from both the U.S. Southwest and the Levant indicate that tool morphology is more closely related to differing processing strategies than to the food procurement system. Ethnographic accounts of food preparation techniques and tool design experiments provide a foundation for new methods of assessing prehistoric food processing techniques. Food-processing techniques from eight distinct cultural groups in the U.S. Southwest provide examples of how foods might have been incorporated into the prehistoric diet. Experiments with prehistoric food-grinding tool types demonstrate their effectiveness for reducing assorted seeds and maize kernels and helping to identify criteria for a technological analysis of grinding tool types. Archaeological assemblages from selected sites in the U.S. Southwest are evaluated with these criteria and used to discuss the relationship between grinding technology and the introduction of and increasing dependency on agriculture. It is proposed that developments in food-grinding technology are related to processing strategies for incorporating flour into prehistoric diets.

Back to the Grindstone? The Archaeological Potential of Grinding-Stone Studies in Africa with Reference to Contemporary Grinding Practices in Marakwet, Northwest Kenya

“…Other factors known to effect variability in grinding-stone assemblages include rawmaterial scarcity (Fratt and Biancaniello 1993;Stone 1994) and regularity of use (Nelson and Lippmeier 1993). Differences in the pre-treatment (e.g., drying or wetting of grain) and desired qualities of the product being prepared must also be considered (Adams 1999). …”

ARBORICULTURA Y SILVOPASTORALISMO EN EL PERÍODO FORMATIVO (1.400 a.C.-500 d.C.) DE LA CUENCA DEL SALAR DE ATACAMA

“…Los patrones de plantas inferidos desde los artefactos de molienda no muestran exclusión entre las formas cónicas y planas características del Arcaico y el Formativo respectivamente (Tabla 3), sugiriendo que no hay una relación entre el cambio en la forma y los recursos procesados (Adams 1993(Adams , 1999Liu et al 2011;Wright 1994). Los morteros planos han sido reportados por varios autores como más eficientes que los cónicos, en cuanto implican menos esfuerzo y tiempo de trabajo para la misma cantidad de producto elaborado (Adams 1993;Babot 2006;Mauldin 1993;Wright 1994).…”

“…Los morteros planos han sido reportados por varios autores como más eficientes que los cónicos, en cuanto implican menos esfuerzo y tiempo de trabajo para la misma cantidad de producto elaborado (Adams 1993;Babot 2006;Mauldin 1993;Wright 1994). Además el recurso molido tendría una mayor bioaccesibilidad (Babot 2004;Stahl 1989;Wollstonecroft et al 2008;K.…”

The use of stone at Ohalo II, a 23,000 year old site in the Jordan Valley, Israel

“…The major distinctions were based on morphological and techno-typological parameters, with ground stone tool identification and characterization following the works of Adams (1999;2002: 11-18), and Wright (1991;1992a;1992b) who already studied stone assemblages from 21 Epipalaeolithic to Chalcolithic sites in the Levant. Flakes were defined as such if they had a bulb of percussion or previous dorsal scar(s).…”