Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures
> TATAVIAM INDIANS   > CASTAIC
Bedrock Mortars & Cupules
Fish Canyon | Castaic, California

Sandstone boulder with at least 13 bedrock mortars (the deeper holes) and as many as 60 cupules (the shallower "dimples"), located at the head of the Castaic Valley at the confluence of Castaic Creek and Fish Creek, on what was the Naylor Ranch from the 1910s to the early 1930s.

This boulder is believed to represent the sole remaining rock art in upper Castaic Canyon, following the creation of State Water Project reservoirs at Castaic and Elderberry canyons in the early 1970s.

The boulder measures approximately 3.25 x 2.5 meters and about 1.5 meters high. Probably Tataviam in origin, the deepest mortar is 17cm deep; the shallowest, 2cm. The mortars would have served a kitchen purpose.

The shallower cupules had ceremonial significance, possibly relating to female puberty rites. Red pigment — the "girls' color" (Whitley 1996; see discussion here) — seen on this boulder suggests that these mortars might also have been used to create paint for the rock art that resulted from such rituals. Whitley (1996:34) writes:

"Native groups in southwestern California made red pigment by collecting and drying a particular type of pond algae. They ground the pigments with bedrock mortars commonly found near pictograph sites and applied the paint to rocks with brushes made from vegetable fibers or animal hairs, or they daubed it on with their fingers or hands."


LW0070: 9600 dpi jpeg from digital image, year 2000, by Leon Worden.
TATAVIAM ARTIFACTS

Bowers Cave

Peabody Museum Index


thumbnail

Bowers Cave Specimens (Mult.)

thumbnail

Bowers on Bowers Cave 1885

thumbnail

Stephen Bowers Bio

thumbnail

Bowers Cave: Perforated Stones (Henshaw 1887)

thumbnail

Bowers Cave: Van Valkenburgh 1952

• Bowers Cave Inventory (Elsasser & Heizer 1963)


thumbnail

Tony Newhall 1984

• Chiquita Landfill Expansion DEIR 2014: Bowers Cave Discussion

Agua Dulce

thumbnail

Vasquez Rock Art x8

thumbnail

Ethnobotany of Vasquez, Placerita (Brewer 2014)

thumbnail

Bowl x5

thumbnail

Basketry Fragment

Acton

thumbnail

Blum Ranch (Mult.)

thumbnail

Little Rock Creek

Castaic Area

thumbnail

Grinding Stone, Chaguayanga

thumbnail

Fish Canyon Bedrock Mortars & Cupules x3

thumbnail

2 Steatite Bowls, Hydraulic Research 1968

thumbnail

Steatite Cup, 1970 Elderberry Canyon Dig x5

thumbnail

Ceremonial Bar, 1970 Elderberry Canyon Dig x4

thumbnail

Projectile Points (4), 1970 Elderberry Canyon Dig

thumbnail

Paradise Ranch Earth Oven

Piru Creek

Lopez Report 1974


thumbnail

Twined Water Bottle x14

thumbnail

Twined Basketry Fragment

thumbnail

Grinding Stones, Camulos

Newhall Area

thumbnail

Arrow Straightener

thumbnail

Pestle

Tejon Area

thumbnail

Basketry x2

thumbnail

Coiled Basket 1875

Other

thumbnail

Riverpark, aka River Village (Mult.)

thumbnail

Riverpark Artifact Conveyance

thumbnail

Tesoro (San Francisquito) Bedrock Mortar

thumbnail

Mojave Desert: Burham Canyon Pictographs

thumbnail

Leona Valley Site (Disturbed 2001)

thumbnail

2 Baskets

thumbnail

So. Cal. Basket

thumbnail

Biface, Haskell Canyon

thumbnail

2 Mortars, 2 Pestles, Bouquet Canyon

RETURN TO TOP ]   RETURN TO MAIN INDEX ]   PHOTO CREDITS ]   BIBLIOGRAPHY ]   BOOKS FOR SALE ]
SCVHistory.com is another service of SCVTV, a 501c3 Nonprofit • Site contents ©SCVTV
The site owner makes no assertions as to ownership of any original copyrights to digitized images. However, these images are intended for Personal or Research use only. Any other kind of use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication in any medium or format, public exhibition, or use online or in a web site, may be subject to additional restrictions including but not limited to the copyrights held by parties other than the site owner. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for determining the existence of such rights and for obtaining any permissions and/or paying associated fees necessary for the proposed use.