Pot For Keeping Seeds
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Feb 1871
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Edward Palmer
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Edward Palmer
notes: label: Notes
content: The pot was included in the NMNH Constitution Ave. Lobby Case exhibit featuring the ethnobotanical collections of Dr. Edward Palmer, Dec. 2006 - Jan. 2008. See also NMNH Department of Botany Edward Palmer collections web exhibit page on this artifact: http://botany.si.edu/colls/palmer/narrative_page.cfm?Narr=5&locality= . Identified there: Edward Palmer noted that "nearly every [Mohave] hut has more or less similar vessels for preserving seeds for use as food or for planting. . . A piece of crockery . . . is laid on top and . . . gum is put [a]round the edges" to keep out air (Palmer 1870). On occasion, ceramic pots cracked; the Mohave mended and sealed them with a reddish, amber-colored resin Palmer recorded as "Lamotea gum." The resinous substance Palmer described is actually known as a "lac." Whereas a "gum" is actually an exudate of the plant itself. Lac is secreted by the insect Tachardiella larrae (formerly named Carteria larrae) that inhabits the plant. Lac is found on the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), which grows abundantly in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Only females of the insect species exude lac and as the female develops, she gradually forms a thick crust of resin over herself and the creosote twig as a protective mechanism. The Mohave collected this crust, made of shellac, wax, and organic materials (including bark and insect bodies), in the wild and heated it to high temperatures before using it. Many peoples of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico also used lac as a mastic (a cement for adhesive or filler) and it still is collected throughout the year to mend and seal pottery (Anderson, 2005:47). Lac is also produced by Tachardiella larrae on a different plant: Pluchea borealis Torr. & A. Gray (Tessaria borealis), which is used for waxing bows and arrows.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Mar 2018
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Arizona, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Mohave (Mojave)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 002058
label: USNM Number
content: E10319-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Pot