West Ohlone Rocky Ridge17 bedrock mortars and 20 cupulesElevation 1958 ft.Thank you Jeff! Another great discovery. We passed within 50 yards of this site at least three times without noticing it.Bob heads toward the site. There are mortars in that pile of rocks straight ahead of him down the hill.A fine example of a rock […]
Canada del Cierbo28 bedrock mortars, cupules/anvils, and middenLess than 1/2 mile from Interstate 80 off Cummings SkywayElevation 208 ft.Thanks to Joel for leading us here.Archaeological analysis of this site recovered charcoal and bone more than 4,000 years old. Midden at this site may be from N. C. Nelsons Crockett Mound (No. 254).The expedition heads toward […]
Manzanita berry grinding slick with one cupule.
Wildcat Creek Cupule Rock20+ cupules and incising on a blueschist boulder in Wildcat Creek.Elevation 285 ft.Another cupule rock on Wildcat Creek. Could this rock in the middle of the creek have had something to do with fishing magic?A closer view of the cupule rock.Photograph by Bob Bardell.
Canyon Milling siteTwenty-nine bedrock mortars, three probable bedrock-mortars.Ten small mortars on one rock could be considered cupules.Elevation 1477 ft.Our name for this site comes from Table 1 of the 1992 report Evaluation, Request for Determination of Eligibility, and Effect for the Los Vaqueros Project.A partial view of the site.Photograph by Bob BardellA closer look at […]
Mid-Walpert Village32 bedrock mortars, rock wall alignments, numerous cupules and grinding slicks.A low, stacked-rock rectangle on a slope just below the crest of Walpert Ridge dominates this site. Could it have been a sheepherder’s corral? What, for paralyzed sheep? So who would have stacked these rocks if not the Yrgin residents of the small village […]
Williams Gulch2 bedrock mortars and 2 cupulesElevation 1369 ft.Jeff has a way of finding bedrock mortar rocks in remote locations.The mortar rock here sits on a little shelf above Miller’s Creek.Another view of the mortar rock.A closeup of the rockPrevious two photographs by Jeff Green.This site is on private property. Secure permission before visiting it.
Canyon Trail Park Petroglyph Boulder20+ bedrock mortars and 175+ cupules on one chlorite blueschist boulder.Elevation 141 ft.CA-CCO-152This rock is in Canyon Trail Park on a branch of Baxter Creek. Baxter Creek flows into the Bay near Stege, a long-vanished neighborhood on the old shoreline of San Francisco Bay, northwest of Albany hill. Some of the […]
Mira Vista Park10 bedrock mortars and 60+ cupules on a chlorite blueschist boulder near Baxter Creek.Elevation 116 ft.See Canyon Trail Petroglyphs for more details about cupule petroglyphs. Also see Cupule Petroglyphs in the Diablo Range by E. Breck Parkman in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 254-55 (1986). […]
Chinese Tree of Heaven18 bedrock mortars (including 5 bowl mortars), 3 metates, 2 cupules, incised rocks, rock rectangles, rock walls, and rock-lined pathwaysThe Chinese Tree of Heaven tree (Ailanthus altissima) was introduced to California by the Chinese during the Gold Rush. The presence of this tree along with the dry-laid masonry skill apparent in a […]
