El Gigante Rock Shelter: Archaic Mesoamerica and Transitions to Settled Life

Other Lithic Material (ground stone)

Twenty-three pieces of ground stone artifacts were recovered in the excavations, both in ceramic and preceramic contexts. Several specimens were recovered that point to the processing of plant foods early in the Archaic sequence. Early pieces are merely river cobbles with evidence of ground edges and battering on the ends. However, later pieces are true one-handed manos, or machucadores, purposely shaped river cobbles (square or aspirin-tablet shaped), with ground surfaces around the entire circumference and on either or both faces. This change in technology indicates a development of the plant processing industry through time.

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