The Pima Indians/Technology/Artifacts/Stone

by Frank Russell

TECHNOLOGY

Artifacts

STONE

Metate

The metate is the most abundant of the stone implements of the Southwest, or, if arrow points exceed them in numbers, the former is at least the most noticeable. About nearly every ruin one sees the fragments of broken metates, in some cases to the number of several score, as at the ruin near Patagonia, in the Sonoita valley, where sixty metates were counted on the ground (every one had been intentionally broken), and there must have been a much larger number beneath the surface. Some of those found in the Hohokam ruins are of lava and have legs several inches in length. Most of these are hollowed out, as are those of the Hopis, whereas the metates of the Pimas are perfectly flat on the top from side to side, being slightly concave form end to end (fig. 28). They are of coarse-grained rock from the surrounding hills and never carved or provided with legs. They vary in weight from 20 to 200 pounds and are carried about the premises as needed, never being set in bins, as among the Pueblo tribes. Their grinding surface is sharpened or roughened by pecking with a stone ax, or with a similarly shaped stone if an ax is not obtainable.

Fig. 28. Grinding wheat on metate.

Fig. 29. Stone pestle.

Muller

The muller is of lava or of stone similar to that of the metate itself. It is longer than that used by the Hohokam, so that the entire upper surface of the metate is worn down. It is not shaped into a rectangular bar, as is that found in the ruins. Indeed, the writer saw few that showed any evidence of having been shaped in any manner except through use.

Pestle

The stone pestle^[1] is used in every Pima household to crush the mesquite bean and other seeds in the wooden mortars. The pestle varies in size from the small stone the size of one's finger to the great cylinder weighing 20 pounds that requires both hands to wield it. Many of these are obtained from the ruins, but some are shaped by pecking. This is not all done at once, but, a suitable stone having been selected, it is shaped little by little, day by day, as the owner has leisure for the work. This suggests that much of the stonework of primitive peoples which excites our admiration for their patience has been done in this manner, the implement being in use continually and
Fig. 30. Arrowheads. the task of pecking it into more convenient or more pleasing shape being taken up from time to time as "knitting work."

Ax

The stone axes of the Pimas were obtained from the ruins that are far more extensive than the Pima villages in the Gila and Salt River valleys. Most of these axes have each a single blade, many are double-bitted, and some are of the adz form. Others are so large and finely polished as to render plausible the supposition that they were intended for ceremonial use. All are of hard, fine-grained igneous rock called hatovĭk by the Pimas, some of whom assert that the material comes from near the Gulf of California, where they have seen it when on journeys after salt. Others declare that there is no such stone on the surface of the earth, and that all the axes we find now were made from material that was brought from the underworld when Elder Brother led the netherworld people up to conquer those
Fig. 31. Arrow-shaft straightener. then living above. However, no particular religious significance is attached to the axes, as might be

expected, considering their origin. They are sold readily enough, though when a suitable ax is kept for sharpening the metate of the household it is sometimes difficult for a collector to secure it. There is an abundance of suitable stones along the Salt river below where it breaks through the Superstition mountains, and it is probable that all the axes in the valley were obtained from that immediate locality. The few that were seen hafted were fastened with sinew in the fork of a limb of suitable size.

Arrowheads

A great portion of those used by the Pimas were made by the Hohokam. However, the Pimas always had a few arrowhead makers who worked in obsidian, shale, or flint. They produced small heads varying from 1 to 2½ cm. in length by 1 in breadth. Those represented in figure 30 are old points. The heads are stemless, sometimes having shoulders for the sinew seizing. One man was found who continues to make arrowheads, which he sells to the whites.

Arrow-shaft Straightener

The Pimas had very little need for grooved stones for straightening arrows as the arrowwood is naturally as straight as could be desired. It is probable that the stones of this kind found in the ruins were used merely for polishing. The Pimas used them scarcely at all.^[2]

Hammer Stones

These are frequently seen around the ruins of Arizona, but the Pimas seem to have little use for them.

Fig. 32. Crystals from medicine basket.

Firestones

Three stones, each about 15 cm. in diameter, were used to support the cooking pots over the fire. They have been largely supplanted by an iron frame obtained from the agency blacksmith. These stones were picked up when needed and little effort made to preserve then.

Crystals

Crystals and curiously shaped stones of all kinds were preserved in the outfits of the medicine-men. Several such specimens were purchased and some were found in a cache among the hills (fig. 32).^[3]

Magic Tablets

The collection contains two tablets which were obtained from medicine-men and half of one which was found in the cache above referred to (fig. 33, a, b, c). Two have ornamental borders, while
a
cb
Fig. 33, a, b, c. Magic tablets. the third is quite smooth to the rounded margin; it has the figure of a horse scratched on one side and that of a man on the other.^[4]

Turquoise

This stone, which is so common in some parts of the Southwest that every Indian has it hanging from ears, neck, or arms, seems to be rare in Pimeria. But one pair of ear pendants was seen. It was somewhat more abundant in early days. It was believed that if a man lost a turquoise the mishap was due to magic, and as a result he would be afflicted with some mysterious ailment which could be cured only by a medicine-man skilled in the cure of the "doctor's disease." He would use another piece of turquoise
Fig. 34. Stone pipe. or a slate or a crystal, placing the stone in water and giving the latter to the patient to drink.

Pipe

A stone cylinder (fig. 34),^[5] probably a pipe, was obtained from a Pima, who said that he had "found it long ago." It seems short for such a purpose, yet it is longer than a cane cylinder the writer found in actual use. The smoke is blown outward in certain ceremonies and in others drawn in. These tubes were also used by the Pimas in sucking and blowing the bodies of the sick for the purpose of expelling disease.

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1. An average-sized specimen in the collection weighs 4½ pounds; it is 253 mm. long and 76 mm. in diameter (fig. 29).
2. A specimen (Hohokam) in the collection (fig. 31) has been shaped to represent some animal (?). It is 92 mm. long and 60 mm. wide.
3. Compare Cushing: "In this connection it is interesting to add as of possible moment suggestively that associated with the ultra mural remains [in the Salt River valley], both house- and pyral-, were found small, peculiar concretion-stones and crystals evidently once used as personal fetiches or amulets, as is the case at Zuñi to-day." Congrès International des Américanistes, VII^me sess., 1890, 179.
4. The last tablet is 122 mm. long by 56 mm. wide; it is 6 mm. thick at one side and tapers to 2 mm. at the other. The largest specimen is 151 mm. long by 94 mm. wide and 10 mm. thick; the border is 10 mm. wide, marked thus: XXXX. The broken specimen is 87 mm. wide: its length can not be determined. The X pattern at the margin runs over to the surface of the reverse side.
5. Length, 48 mm.; internal diameter, 16 mm.; maximum external diameter, 26 mm.