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Sierra stone basins may be Miwok salt ‘factory’

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 30, 2009 at 8:07 am

salt basinsFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Somewhere in the Sierra Nevada, a granite terrace the size of a football field holds hundreds of mysterious stone basins representing what geologists believe is one of the earliest known “factories” created and used by ancient Miwok Indians to make tons of salt to trade with tribes up and down California.

James G. Moore, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, learned of the strangely pitted terrace from detailed maps made more than a century ago and hiked the region in May to study what he determined were clearly hand-hewn objects.

He examined 369 of the circular artifacts only a few yards from two streams of saltwater fed by a nearby spring and a lake that was equally salty.

Moore and his colleague at the USGS, Michael F. Diggles, believe the circular basins were handmade by the Miwok people in an impressive display of early technology. … “

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

December 30, 2009 · Filed Under Lake Tahoe & the Sierra's

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