Diagram from Sutton & Arkush 1996. Click to enlarge.

Name: Hopper Mortar with Asphaltum

Culture: Tataviam

Material: Stone, asphaltum

Dimensions: 12.75 x 9.75 x 7.25 in / 32.4 x 24.8 x 18.4 cm

Depth of depression: <1 in / <2.5 cm

Weight: 53.5 lbs / 24.3 kg

Provenance: Blum Ranch, Aliso Canyon, Acton; see below

Catalog No: LW.BLR18201

Related: Blum Ranch Material Index

Asphaltum, aka bitumen, is a type of tar that occurs naturally in the Santa Clarita Valley (esp. Pico Canyon) and elsewhere. Among its many uses in the Tataviam sphere, it was used as mastic to secure a hopper (bottomless basket) to a mortar to form a container.

The 160-acre Blum Ranch was homesteaded in 1891 by George Blum, a Swiss stonemason who immigrated to the United States in 1880. The property straddles the Santa Clara River in the Aliso Canyon section of Acton, just below (north of) the headwaters of the river. The ranch remained in the Blum family until 2017 when it was sold (escrow closed in January 2018). The principal products of the ranch were stone fruit and honey.

At various times from 1891 to 2017, the ranch owners collected Native American lithic materials that they found on their property. In January 2018, approximately 200 lithic items — primarily grinding stones (manos, pestles), one arrow straightener, four or five shallow bowls or dishes (possibly paint pots), and about a dozen larger ground stones and mortars — were obtained from the ranch owner/seller and are to be conveyed to the Ferandeño-Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, whose membership includes descendants of individuals living the Acton area prior to European contact.

Some of the more unusual pieces, such as the (3) small, shallow bowls with incised lines, whose purpose is unknown, bear a strong resemblance to artifacts found elsewhere in the Los Angeles area and which have been dated to the arrival of Takic speakers (Tataviam, Tongva, etc.) about 1,500 years ago. See for example "A Selection of Specimens in the Palmer 1917 Collection from the Magala Cove Site, CA-LAN-138" by Henry C. Koerper in Pacific Coast Archaeology Society Quarterly, Vol. 53 No. 4, December 2017.

Click to enlarge.

Left behind at Blum Ranch (not retrieved) were approximately three dozen other grinding stones that were embedded as decoration in the cement wall of a fountain feature that was probably installed in the second decade of the 20th Century when the main ranch house was built (see photo).

Tataviam people utilized the ranch property from the Middle and Late Prehistoric periods until sometime after contact was made either by Fages in 1772 or Garcés in 1776. Abutting the ranch on the south and extending southwesterly to the Santa Clara Divide is a 7,850-acre section of the Angeles National Forest that is designated a Special Interest Area because of its cultural significance. It boasts numerous "archaeological sites ranging from long-term occupation sites [to] seasonal encampments and special-use resource procurement, processing, and storage sites" (see fuller description below). One such site is the Aliso Junction Earth Oven site in Aliso Canyon. The oven was radiocarbon dated to 940-1,000 years ago (as of 2005), and the location continued to be inhabited at the time of historic contact by the Tataviam.^[1]

In 2002, under contract with the USDA Forest Service, a group of Pierce College archaeology students led by Dr. Joseph S. "Noble" Eisenlauer conducted a field study immediately south of (upstream from) the Blum Ranch. Eisenlauer and others reported finding numerous small arrow points (bird points), rock outlines of house or possibly religious sites, burnt animal bone, and a variety of beads — shell and steatite beads from the coast, as well as European glass beads, the latter indicating continued post-contact presence.^[2]

Note: It is a federal offense to remove anything from the forest without a permit. Multiple federal laws prohibit the removal of "Indian artifacts."

The USDA Forest Service "Aliso-Arrastre Middle and North" Special Interest Area is described as follows (2005):^[3]