✅ SOLVED Are these native American?

[Smokey57]

Found these 2 items at a California estate sale. Are they Indian tools? The cone shaped one has wear on the flat side.there 5 images of cone and two images of the grooved one.
Cone shape one is 8" long, base is 3"x 4"
The other is 6-1/2" long, 5-1/2" x 3"
Added New photo of cone rock,,,

 

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[joshuaream]

The conical one looks like a tejolote, or the Mexican pestle that matches the style of pig molcajete you have in the first picture. (Probably made for a larger one.)

The other one doesn’t look as modern.

The best ID however is the material. If it’s made of basalt with little bubbles, it’s Mexican and probably not ancient. If it’s granite or some other hardstone, it’s likely not Mexican and could very well be ancient.

 

[Jon Stewart]

I have a bell pestle made out of basalt that was authenticated as an artifact.

 

[joshuaream]

I have a bell pestle made out of basalt that was authenticated as an artifact.

Jon,

Sorry, I might have been too general. There are lots of authentic basalt relics out there.

Almost all of the Mexican examples are made from a unique vesicular basalt (bubbles but still very hard) that outcrops in a couple of areas in Central and Western Mexico. It’s usually different than the compact basalt used in California and other western states for pestles & bowls.

The ancient groups in Mexico usually didn’t use the bubbly basalt pestles and bowls for hard grinding, they used them more for cooking. (They made pastes and squished things in the molcajetes, but heat was used.) For grinding corn and hard seeds they used compact basalt or sandstone tools.

Joshua

 

[Smokey57]

Thanks for all the info. The cone is very, very dense stone. No bubbles at all, it looks like granite to me. It is nothing like the bowl I put it in for the picture.in researching the cone the most similar tool was from the pomp Indians.not sure if this help with identifying this. The grooved one may remain a mystery.

 

[Smokey57]

Excuse me, pomo tribe

 

[Smokey57]

Any other thoughts about the grooved rock? Natural or Artifact ? What would this tool be used for?Thanks

 

[Tdog]

Any other thoughts about the grooved rock? Natural or Artifact ? What would this tool be used for?Thanks

Without anything else to go on other than those two pics, I'd say it's natural. If you see something that I'm missing, point it out.

 

[RGINN]

The wife says that's a Mexican molcajete and the mano (pestle) doesn't go with that. She thinks the molcajete is modern. What does the bottom of the molcajete look like? Does it have legs? I have seen actual molcajetes on prehistoric sites, so I don't know that much, but the wife grew up using those in Mexico.

 

[Smokey57]

Right, the molcajete was just there so I put the pestle in it., just showing the pestle not what it is sitting in. Sorry for the confusion. The subjects in question are the pestle and the grooved rock.