Mortars, maize, and Central Plains tradition farmers

Abstract

Plains archaeologists have referred to a class of features they have labelled mortar holes at least since the 1940s. These features are typically postholes identified in locations in the floors of houses that seem unlikely to have supported the weight of the house’s roof. Instead, researchers suggest that these holes once held wooden mortars used to process maize and other materials. These references are uneven: essentially identical features are labelled pocket caches or simply marked as posts in many cases. This paper discusses archaeological features likely to have held mortars in light of the use of wooden mortars in recent times on the Plains, outlines patterns in the distribution of possible mortar holes on the Central Plains and Middle Missouri, and sketches some of the important topics they may help us to study. These include the possibility that they can help to identify broad differences in the general kinds of maize grown in different areas and that they document variation in the gendered use of space within the house in different parts of the Plains.