Changes in Groundstone Following the Introduction of Maize into the American Southwest

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Abstract
Distinctive wear patterns occurred on one-hand manos found in Middle Archaic levels of Ventana Cave, Arizona (Haury 1950). This wear was attributed to the Cochise culture practice of giving a side-to-side rocking motion to the mano while grinding small, hard native seeds. The same pattern was recently found in two Middle Archaic Arizona groups (Bayham, Morris, and Shackley 1986) and is explained alternately by simple forearm mechanics. Haury further proposed that the one-hand tools were replaced by two-hand tools when corn entered the Southwest; however, the one-hand form persisted for centuries after corn appeared and was also used historically for grinding corn. The volume of corn ground daily, rather than the presence of corn itself, determined whether one-hand tools would be replaced by two-hand forms. Surprisingly, in contrast to the Old World, further economies of scale in milling technology did not appear in the New World.

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