Carved Wooden Mortar

Carved Wooden Mortar

Wooden mortars like this were made by Indigenous people by carving and hollowing out tree trunks. The flared form of this mortar relates to an example in the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian) with origins in Ulster County. In particular, wooden mortars were used with pestles by Indigenous people to grind corn and nuts with hard shells, like acorn and beechnuts.

Esopus Lenape

HHS Permanent Collection

Date unknown