МАЭ № 570-78

Cooking basket

South Pomo

circa 1841

I.G. Voznesenskii's expedition

cedar root, clam shell, sedge root, reed root, willow twig, acorn woodpecker feather, hemp fiber

height 26.0; diameter 44.0; diameter of upper edge 37.5

Californian Indians did not know pottery, so to cook food they used large waterproof baskets. They were made of tree branches and roots. For cooking a basket was filled with water and than meat and red-hot stones were put into it. The basket swelled and did not let water through. Stones that grew cool were replaces with hot stones and thus boiled the meat.

Ethnography of America