TOLOACHE MORTARS (?) FROM THE PALOS VERDES PENINSULA William J. Wallace Early in 1961 two remarkable ornamented mor- tars, one intact, the other broken in half, were turned up by earthrmoving equipment at an archaeological site at the Palos Verdes Estates in the southern coastal dis- trict of Los Angeles County (E. Wallace 1961). The site at which they were found covers a level to gently sloping stretch of land atop a sea cliff overlooking Malaga Cove at the southern end of Santa Monica Bay. Just up the coast was the long-occupied culturally stratified Malaga Cove Site, excavated in 1936 and 1937 by Edwin F. Walker (1951:27-69) and which disappeared under a housing development in 1955 (Wallace 1985). When first seen, the two mortars lay in loose, dark, sandy soil. Because bulldozers had churned the ground up, their original depth below surface could not be precisely ascertained. However, they seem to have rested two to three feet down in the archaeological deposit. Close by, broken in half, lay a long, slender pestle. That the mortars and pestle had been randomly discarded seems highly unlikely. Rather, it appeared as if they had been carefully placed in the ground. Shaped from tough, fine-grained gray sandstone, the whole mortar is of the "flower pot" or truncated cone variety (Figure 1). It has sloping sides, a flat base and a broad, neatly squared rim. Of generous size, the vessel stands 21.5 cm high, has a top diameter of 38 cm and weighs 48 pounds. The grinding cavity is deep, well worn and round-bottomed. Encircling the broad, flat rim are two concentric lines of asphalt bearing impressions of tiny (5-6 mm) cupped shell beads. Along the inner circle are four smears of asphalt, equidistant from one another. On the outer circle, near the rim's edge, is a larger daub. None of the asphalt smudges shows shell bead im- pressions. Split lengthwise, the second mortar (Figure 2) is also fashioned from hard, fine-grained sandstone. It closely conforms to the first in form and size, with a height of 22 cm, a 37.8 cm top diameter and a weight of 45 pounds. Again, the grinding cavity is deep and round-bottomed. Two asphalted circles marked with bead impres- sions run around the rim. The circles are interrupted in four places by sets of three cross-lines. An effort had been made to make the mortar whole again. As- phalt, presumably heated, had been thickly smeared over the broken edges of the two parts to glue them together. For further strengthening, two thongs had been bound around the vessel. Seated in shallow grooves pecked into the mortar's outer surface and asphalted in place, the thongs consisted of thin flat strips, perhaps of rawhide. Clear imprints of them can be seen in the asphalt. Comparable stone mortars, some with rims inlaid with shell beads, have been found elsewhere in south- ern California (Harrington 1928:72-74; Hudson and Blackburn 1983:110, Figure 112-1, 112-2; Kroeber 1909:17-18). An outstanding cache of at least a dozen was unearthed near Chatsworth (Walker 1951:199, Plate XXXV). Examples have also turned up in the San Joaquin Valley (Latta 1977:414). Lacking only a small part of its working end, the pestle is an admirably shaped and smoothed imple- ment (Figure 1). When fitted together, the two pieces form an unusually long (34.5+ cm) and slender (5 cm diameter) pestle. Interestingly, two "very long and beautifully proportioned stone pestles" accompanied the Chatsworth mortars (Walker 1951:99, Plate XXXVI). Eight years after the first discoveries at the Palos Verdes Estates sites, a cluster of five mortars was un- covered in a narrow trench excavated with a mechani- cal digger for installation of an underground electric line (Wallace and Wallace 1970). Regrettably, the vessels had been removed from the ground before being seen by archaeologists. However, an inspec- tion of the trench walls and a little scraping away with TOALACHE MORTARS (?) FROM THE PALOS VERDES PENINSULA trowels revealed that the mortars had been placed in a pit dug into the dark midden soil almost down to an underlying stratum of light-colored, coarse-grained sand. Lying 12-26 inches below the surface, they had originally reposed deeper underground, for a foot or more of soil had been stripped off this section of the archaeological site during land-leveling operations some years before. Beyond doubt, the pit had been lined with thin, flat, pieces of whitish siltstone. Found high up, the largest, (measuring 48 cm x 28 cm x 2.5 cm) may well have covered the top of the hole. A slightly smaller one, standing vertically, perhaps lined one side of the pit and another, lying flat, its bottom. Broken pieces of several more siltstone slabs, smashed by the mechanical digger, lay about the pit. All of sandstone, the five mortars, though nicely shaped and finished, are more simply made than the two found earlier and none bears any form of decora- tion. Four of the vessels are bowl-shaped with thick outcurving walls (Figure 3a - 3c and 3e). Bases are flat on three, slightly rounded on the fourth. Three of the four have fairly broad flattened rims, whereas one has a thin rounded lip. None of the mortars are par- ticularly big, the largest having a height of 17 cm and a top diameter of 22 cm. Grinding cavities of three of them are round-bottomed, somewhat tapered on the fourth. The fifth mortar is a crude example of the "flower pot" variety (Figure 3d). Its outer surface is some- what asymmetrical due to an imperfection in the sand- stone. Not as large as the two others of this form, the vessel stands 17.5 cm high and has a top diameter of 22 cm. Its grinding cavity narrows toward the bot- tom. In the pit with the five mortars were a handsome granite millingstone and a steatite cup. Elongate oval in outline and nearly flat on the underside, the mill (Figure 3f) has been carefully smoothed on all sur- faces. Quite large, the mill measures 45 cm x 27 cm. Conceivably; it could have served as a dish or shal- low basin rather than for seed grinding. Made of coarse, granular steatite, the cup is roughly oval in shape with flattened base and rounded lip (Fig- ure 3g). Apparently once well finished, the cup's ex- terior is now extensively scarred. A dark stain par- tially covers the damaged lip. The small container stands 6.5 cm high and varies between 7.2 and 9.2 cm in diameter. A critical question to be asked is, what do these finds mean? That the mortars were intended for hard day-to-day usage in mashing acorns or other plant products seems highly unlikely. Their nature and ap- parent concealment suggest that they served a special purpose. Ethnographic information offers a possible clue as to their function. Gabrielino Indians, inhabitants of this coastal strip in the late prehistoric and historic times, manufactured fine mortars for use in a boy's initiation rite that cen- tered around drinking a concoction prepared from the roots of the datura or jimsonweed plant, often called toloachel (Bean and Vane 1978:667-668; Gayton 1928:27-28; Kroeber 1925:668-673). Aimed at put- ting youths in contact with the spiritual world and pre- paring them for manhood and tribal status, the cer- emony was held whenever there was a sufficient num- ber of eligible young males. Gathered, dried and mashed up in stone mortars reserved for this purpose, the Jimsonweed roots were steeped in water to produce a potent narcotic drink. Given to the initiates, usually in a special cup, the beverage brought on stupor or unconsciousness that lasted for many hours. While in this state, the youths experienced vivid color dreams or visions that brought special blessings and a spiritual helper or guardian. At the end of the rite, the mortars used in preparing the drink were carefully and reverently hidden away in the ground, to be dug up and used again when a new lot of boys were ready for initiation. Believed to have had its origin among the Gabrielino (Kroeber 1925:621-622), the so-called Toloache Ceremony was performed by a number of native peoples living in the coastal district of Califor- nia. Among the Gabrielino the ritual had become closely tied to observances connected with Chingichnich, a wise, powerful deity who laid down rules for human conduct and punished transgressors. Because a moralistic deity of this sort seems out of place in an aboriginal religion, it has been suggested that Christianity provided the stimulus (Kroeber 1925:656; 1959:291) and that Chingichnich represents the Franciscan missionaries' God, given a new name and fitted into existing native beliefs and practices. If indeed the Palos Verdes Estates finds represent datura-drinking paraphernalia, they provide a fairly early record of the practice, for radiocarbon determi- nations date the site's occupancy between A.D. 150 and 780 (Berger, Wallace 143 FENENGA VOLUME Figure 1: Whole Mortar of the "Flower Pot" or Truncated Cone Variety. 144 TOALACHE MORTARS (?) FROM THE PALOS VERDES PENINSULA Figure 2: Second Mortar Found Split Lengthwise. Wallace 145 FENENGA VOLUME Figure 3: Mortars, Mill and Cup. 146 TOALACHE MORTARS (?) FROM THE PALOS VERDES PENINSULA Ferguson and Libby 1965:342)2. Thus, if there is any validity to the view that the Chingichnich religion rep- resents a post-contact phenomenon, the mortars and other specimens offer a strong hint, if not proof, that the Toloache Ceremony was firmly entrenched here centuries before Chingichnich appeared on the scene. True enough, all this is an excursion into the realm of surmise and conjecture. It might rightfully be said, that to attribute ceremonial significance, and in this case a specific ritual purpose, to objects dug from the ground is a risky, if not imprudent, procedure. None- theless, the archaeological evidence, by no means com- plete and tidy, does go some way towards raising the possibility, or even probability, that the Palos Verdes Estates mortars did see employment in the Toloache Ceremony. Endnotes 1. The term "toloache" has attained wide currency among California anthropologists. It is a hispanicized form of "toloatzin," an Aztec name for the Datura. 2. The mortars can be placed in a cultural as well as a time frame. Controlled digging at the Palos Verdes Estates Site in 1961-62 produced an assortment of artifacts typical of the closing prehistoric phase of the southern California coastal region. References Cited Bean, Lowell J., and Sylvia B. Vane 1978 Cults and Their Transformation. In California Handbook of the North American Indians, Volume 8, California, pp. 662-672. Robert F. Heizer vol. ed. Smithsonian Institu- tion, Washington D.C. Berger, Rainer, G. J. Ferguson, and W. F. Libby 1965 UCLA Radiocarbon Dates IV. Radio- carbon 7:331-336. Gayton, Anna H. 1928 The Narcotic Plant Datura in Aborigi- nal American Culture. Ph.D. Dissertation. Uni- versity of California, Berkeley. Harrington, John P. 1928 Exploration of the Burton Mound at Santa Barbara, California. In 44h1 Annual Report of theBureau ofAmericanEthnologyforthe Years 1926- 1927, pp. 23-168. Washington D.C. Hudson, Travis, and Thomas C. Blackburn 1983 The Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere. In Food Preparation and Shelter, Volume 2. Ballena Press, Santa Barbara. Kroeber, Alfred L. 1909 The Archaeology of California. In Putnam Anniversary Volume, Anthropological Essays Presented to Fredrick W. Putnam in Honor of his 70th Birthday, pp. 1-42. G. E. Stechert, New York. 1925 Handbook of the Indians of Califor- nia. Bureau of American Ethnology 78. Wash- ington D.C. 1959 Ethnographic Interpretations 7-1. University of California Publications in Ameri- can Archaeology and Ethnology 47(3). Berke- ley and Los Angeles. Latta, Frank F. 1977 Handbook of the Yokuts Indians. Bear State Books, Santa Cruz. Walker, Edwin F. 1951 Five Prehistoric Sites in Los Angeles County, California. In Frederick Webb Hodge Anniversary Publication Fund Volume 6. Southwest Museum, Los Angeles. Wallace, Edith 1961 Mortars from Malaga Cove 2. ARA Bulletin VI (4):6-7. Wallace, William J. 1985 Last Look at Malaga Cove. In Woman, Poet, Scientist, Essays in New World Anthropology Honoring Emma Lou Davis, pp. 136-144. Ballena Press, Los Altos. Wallace, William J., and Edith Wallace 1970 A Cache of Stone Vessels from Malaga Cove 2. ARA Bulletin XV (3):2-4. Wallace 147