51. An Incised Pebble from Lassen County, California

Arnold R. Pilling

The only archaeological specimen from California presented to the British
Museuml within the last half century is a single incised pebble collected by
Mr. H. F. Smart, near Doyle, Lassen County, California, about 1931. As simi-
lar specimens from this region of Northeastern California are not reported in
the literature, a brief description is warranted.

The pebbles of gray, slightly porous basalt, is 5.9 cm. long, 4.1 cm.

wide, and 2.7 cm, thick. The specimen may be only half of an aboriginal piece;
however, the unfinished surface shows no sign of recent fracture, so a complete
specimen may as likely be represented. The incising is V-shaped, clear and
relatively deep.

The design on Face 2 (Fig. lc) is reminiscent of the human motif present
on the pecked petroglyphs of Northeastern California.2  The representation of
a human head by four vertical lirns extending from a horizontal bar may be

unique. The presence of a similar design on Face 1 (Fig. la) suggests that
this side is unfinished#

The use of this incised stone is unknown. The parallelism of its motif
with the adjacent pecked petroglyphs suggests some relationship with the lat-
ter. The possibility that this is an artist's sketch for some petroglyph

seems unlikely as such a petroglyph would represent little more labor than the
incising of the stone. Possibly this stone is a portable petrogly h, sharing
social function with other petroglyphs of this region. A third suggestion is
that this specimen represents a charm or fetish, unrelated to petroglyphs ex-
cept by similar motif. Until pieces of this type are uncovered in excavation,
further conjecture seems useless.

Incised tablets are known elsewhere in California, especially on the

Southern and Central Coast. However, none of these occurrences show zoomor-
phic forms. Until research in Northeastern California and adjacent areas of
Nevada has been carried further, the cultural significance of this specimen
may not be determined.

Notes and References

1. The archaeological and ethnographic material from California in the De-
partment of Ethnography of the British Museum was graciously made available
for description by Mr. Adrian Digby, keeper of the collections. The speci-
men here described is catalogue number 1932, 1-2, 1.

2. Steward, Julian H. Petroglyphs of California and Adjoining States. U.C.
Publs. in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1929. (See
p. 62 and pl. 23.)

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