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ejain
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ejain
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PostMon Sep 02, 2019 12:47 pm 
Could this be a grinding slab, or is it more likely just a natural feature?

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gb
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PostTue Sep 03, 2019 6:50 am 
That looks natural. It is incut too steeply. Features like this are common as potholes in granite. Manos and metates I have seen one ancient site where three corn grinding stations were still intact. They consisted of flat square stones with adjacent vertical stones or walls in contact with the grinding stone - sort of like the trough type in the archaeological link.

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ejain
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PostTue Sep 03, 2019 10:42 am 
gb wrote:
It is incut too steeply
How about a bedrock mortar? (Don't do an image search for that term if you suffer from trypophobia :-) Didn't see similar erosion patterns in other rocks in the area (on top of a ridge), hence my suspicion that it could be human-made...

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Schenk
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PostTue Sep 03, 2019 12:45 pm 
One question in my mind: why would someone haul something to the top of a ridge to grind it when there are most likely rocks and stones closer to the food source?

Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
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ejain
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PostTue Sep 03, 2019 3:12 pm 
Schenk wrote:
One question in my mind: why would someone haul something to the top of a ridge to grind it when there are most likely rocks and stones closer to the food source?
It's a wide ridge with meadows and stands of trees, so it's conceivable that there is (or used to be) a food source there...

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Schenk
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PostWed Sep 04, 2019 11:25 am 
Super pretty! Maybe there were (huckle)berries there at one time?

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Mike Collins
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Mike Collins
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PostSat Sep 14, 2019 11:42 am 
Schenk wrote:
One question in my mind: why would someone haul something to the top of a ridge to grind it when there are most likely rocks and stones closer to the food source?
For the First Nations various places on the land were sacred. The holes could be human in origin and might not have anything to do with food. Unfortunately much of the oral history has been lost due to the upheaval caused through immigration by those of European heritage. The Mountaineers made an attempt to locate these sites but their efforts came up empty. https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/native-american-sacred-sites-audit

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Anne Elk
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PostSat Sep 14, 2019 12:11 pm 
I could be way off base with this, but my guess that the reason they "came up empty" is that the tribes would not willingly disclose certain areas, especially "micro-sites" that are sacred to them, unless forced by something massive, like threatened development. I would not trust divulging info to any non-native entity and expect that the site would remain secret, and not eventually draw the curious. Of course some sites are impossible to keep secret, like Devil's Tower.

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Mike Collins
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PostSat Sep 14, 2019 12:54 pm 
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gb
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gb
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PostWed Sep 18, 2019 7:58 am 
ejain wrote:
gb wrote:
It is incut too steeply
How about a bedrock mortar? (Don't do an image search for that term if you suffer from trypophobia :-) Didn't see similar erosion patterns in other rocks in the area (on top of a ridge), hence my suspicion that it could be human-made...
Potholes in granite and sandstone are very common and created by rainwater. The fact that your images show a lip on one side of the potholes indicates they are natural. Potholes can be quite small or very large - like 15'. Potholes on Cedar Mesa in Utah are common on the rims and provided water for ancient Native Americans who covered the potholes with mats of some kind. Potholes in granite: https://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2014/06/17/weathering-old-rag-mountain-2-opferkessel/ Go to City of Rocks in SE Idaho and you will see abundant similar features in weathered billion year old granite.

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ejain
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PostWed Sep 18, 2019 2:29 pm 
gb wrote:
The fact that your images show a lip on one side of the potholes indicates they are natural.
Thanks, that makes sense!

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