Abstract

This article describes mortars, basins, slicks, and cupules created in bedrock and boulders in the Southern Southwest, and discusses the distribution and possible functions of these features. It defines the Southern Southwest as the region of the U.S. south of 34 degrees north latitude that includes the Califor­nia portion of the Lower Colorado River valley and southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico, and the portion of western Texas that includes El Paso, Hudspeth, Culber­son, Loving, Winkler, Ward, Reeves, and Jeff Davis counties (roughly the part of Texas from El Paso eastward just past the south­eastern corner of New Mexico, then south and south­westward to a point south of Fort Davis, then westward to the Río Grande).

Highlights

  • This article is available in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2020/iss1/15

  • We have found one ethnographic instance in which an arrangement of cupules was identified as a terrestrial map: Hector (2009:71) reported that a pecked cupules rock was said by a Luiseño member of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians to provide a map of southern California’s entire Temecula Valley

  • Many cupules in the southern Southwest, obviously have been ground or polished, yet some are on diagonal, vertical, or even underhanging surfaces (Figures 36, 40, 44, 48, 49, 51, 53-56, 58-64), which would make it difficult or impossible to use the depressions for grinding anything other than the base rock itself

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Summary

Introduction

This article is available in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2020/iss1/15. Bedrock and Boulder Mortars, Basins, Slicks, and Cupules in the Southern Southwest

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