WOOD BRANCH (Hollow) & STONE PESTLE, near Ventura, California

Description

WOOD BRANCH (Hollow) & STONE PESTLE, near
Ventura, California
Branch
Length:
5 ¼”
Diameter:
2 ¼”
Weight:
4.9 oz
Pestle
Length:
7”
Base-Diameter:
1”
Weight:
9.7 oz
This assemblage was found in the mid 1800s by a land owner.
It was uncovered near a known CHUMASH SACRED SITE
Hundreds of years ago on the old Creek Road to Ojai were a group of sycamore trees.
At this location the hills caught the coastal winds coming off the.
The Chumash, among many other tribes believed this area to be very special.
An early California ethnologist and linguist, John Peabody Harrington,
documented a
particular tree among the sycamores where natives would deposit beads, acorns and pine nuts in deference to the spirits within.
The artifacts listed were reportedly found among the tree grove.
Listed is a hollowed out tree branch and a steatite pestle.
According to family descendants, these two items were found together under an uprooted tree.
The pestle is a classic, tear-drop shaped stone with cut/abrasion, pitting marks throughout.
The branch section was clearly cut from a larger piece of wood and hollowed out.
Not much is known about the purpose of these two artifacts:
the pestle does not fully go through the hollowed wood, so it doesn’t appear to be a “handle” of some sort.
Perhaps both were a symbolic effigy of food preparation?