Reproduced from Contemporary Viewing Stone Display (2020), page 47.

Rocks slowly break down over long periods of time to become smaller rocks and eventually sand and silt. This Indian Blanket Stone stone from the Mojave Desert in Southern California is either a fine-grained sandstone or siltstone. The stone is mainly quartz with iron oxides (reddish brown) or quartz with manganese oxides (black). Did these naturally occurring patterns influence the designs of early indigenous pot makers? We may never know. Regardless, the presence of the pot with this stone creates a definite Western United States feeling. Both the stone and the pot were made forces, natural and by man, from dust and clay particles.