Speakers of Bay Miwok dialects occupied most of the area of Contra Costa County not bordering San Francisco or San Pablo bays. The territory of one Bay Miwok tribe, the Jalquin, may have extended into Alameda county and touched San Francisco bay at the mouth of San Leandro Creek.
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 […]
Greenhill Ranch, aka The Green RanchElevation 2,440 ft.We call Greenhill Ranch the “Shaman’s Redoubt” because we think it likely that shamen worshipping on Mt. Diablo used this beautiful site as a camp/staging area. In 1938-9 William Wurster, later to become Dean of the Architecture Department at Cal Berkeley (Wurster Hall is named for him), designed […]
Long Canyon and Marsh Creek36 bedrock mortars, 29 on one rock.The location of this site near the mouth of Hog Canyon meant that this was a “gatehouse” settlement guarding one of the principal routes into the Volvon heartland. This was one of the bedrock mortar sites known to early 20th century Contra Costa County historians.This […]
Mallory Creek #2Second Mallory Creek confluence south of Volvon Village.7 bedrock mortars, two probable mortars, and rock circles.Elevation 980 ft.This sweet site sits at a bend in Mallory Creek near an ancient trail.Check out the rocks. Do they look like they’ve been moved into place?This view looks toward Mallory Creek.This one looks away.Two mortar rocks […]
Near the top of Hog CanyonPossible bowl Metate with 3 bedrock mortarsThis is either a bowl metate, a rarity in these parts, or what Ernest Johnson in “The Stone Mortars of Contra Costa County” would classify as a type “C3” mortar. Johnson says “Type [C3], which resembles a deeply worn metate, is a true mortar, […]
Silva Creek Cave1 bedrock mortar in a rock shelter; a possible basin metate.Elevation 713 ft.Bob stands at the mouth of the cave. There’s plenty of room inside and comfortable sleeping areas.This beautiful cone-shaped mortar sits right in the middle of an ergonomically contoured rock slab.We believe the trinomial for this site is CA-CCO-6.
Upper Pond Village Creek10 bedrock mortars and 10 cupules.Elevation 1888 ft.This site sits beside the creek that flows down to the Pond Village. One of the mortars here is on a nice, flat slab in the creekbed.All ten cupules are on this rock, although it’s hard to make them out in this picture. Two are […]
Cistern BathOne probable shallow mortar.Time to take a bath when the nearby cistern fills with water.
Hematite Processing Site12 bedrock mortars at Holy Names College.Hematite was processed and quarried here. It was often burned, which produced brighter reds, and then leached to remove salts and soften the rock. After that it was ground to a powder.Closeup of a chunk of hematite. Subtle processing differences produced different hues of red ochre.This may […]
Los Meganos State Historic Park2 bedrock mortars and two anvilsElevation 230 ft.These mortars sit near Briones Creek in the hills behind John Marsh’s house. We wouldn’t have looked for mortars or even hiked here if Joel had not made an initial reconnaissance of this area.Bob looks toward the mountain and its subsidiary peaks. The Briones […]
