GC356BB Yokut Mortars (Traditional Cache) in California, United States created by DarkZen

This cache has been archived.

DarkZen_EvilCowPie: An oldie from 2011, this must be a goner. Thanks to all who visited! Archiving.

GC356BB ▼

A cache by DarkZen Message this owner

Hidden : 10/1/2011

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

C'mon up and view the cool indian pot holes (or mortars) that I chanced upon along with ECP. They are very near GZ for the cache - a small lock and lock container.

Acorns were an important food for the Yokut Indians who were native to this area. Women were the main acorn gatherers, and each Fall they hiked to oak groves in the surrounding foothills, hoping to gather the acorns before oak moths infested the trees. After collecting, the acorns were placed in the sun to dry, then stored in baskets, sometimes for months at a time. Later, women and children cracked the acorns open with stones to remove the hard shells and smashed the soft "insides" into meal using stone bowls and elongate pounding stones.

Often this chore was done on boulders, usually near oak trees, using holes in the boulders called "mortars". These holes became deeper and deeper with successive poundings over the years, and eventually needed to be replaced by new mortar holes as the old ones became too deep to use. A bitter acid in the acorns, called tannin, would make one sick, and had to removed before the acorn meal could be eaten. To do this, a hill of sand was made with the center of the hill scooped out and lined with leaves, typically from grapevines. The acorn meal was set on top of the leaves and boiling water poured over this meal several times to leach out the tannin.

To cook acorn meal, women mixed it with water in tightly woven baskets to make a mush and heated the mush with hot stones from the fire. These stones were dropped into baskets using sticks that were bent and tied together with sinew or twine from Yucca fibers to form loops. The acorn meal could also be made into dough and cooked on hot rocks, or rolled into hard balls to carry on a journey.

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Additional Hints (Decrypt)

gerr ubyr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)