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Quern-stone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quern-stones are a pair of stone tools for hand grinding a wide variety of materials. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a handstone.
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Quern-stones have been used throughout the world to grind materials, the most important of which was usually grain to make flour for bread-making. They were generally replaced by millstones once mechanised forms of milling appeared, particularly the water mill and the windmill, although animals were also used to operate the millstones. However, in many non-Westernised, non-mechanised cultures they are still manufactured and used regularly and have only been replaced in many parts of the world in the last century or so.
As well as grain, ethnographic evidence and Mesopotamian texts shows that a wide range of materials were processed using stone querns or mortars, including nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, meat, bark, pigments, temper and clay (Wright 1992:87f). Moreover, one study analysing quern-stones noted that a number of querns had traces of arsenic and bismuth, unlike their source rocks, and had levels of antimony which were ten times higher than those of the rocks (Lease et al 2001:235). They concluded that this was probably due to the use of these querns in the preparation of medicines, cosmetics, dyes or even in the manufacture of alloys.
There are however, more surprising recorded uses of quern-stones. For example, DeBoer (2001:223), in his review of the traditional gambling games of North American tribes, reports that one of the games involved bouncing a group of split canes off a quern. A further example is recorded in the book of Judges (9:53; NRSV): “But a certain woman threw an upper-millstone on Abimelech’s head, and crushed his skull.” In early Maya civilizations the process of nixtamalization was distinctive in that hard, ripe kernels were boiled in water and lime, thus producing nixtamal which was then made into unleavened dough for flat cakes by grinding with a handstone on a quern (metate).[1]
The best type of stone to manufacture quern-stones from are igneous rocks such as basalt. These have naturally rough surfaces, but grains do not detach easily, so the material being ground does not become gritty. However, such rocks are not always available, meaning that quern-stones have been manufactured from a wide variety of rocks, including sandstone, quartzite and limestone.
Rutter (2003) was able to show, for the southern Levant, that basalt quern-stones were preferred to those manufactured from other rock types. Basalt quern-stones were therefore transported over long-distances, leading Rutter (2003:236) to argue that, despite their every-day, utilitarian function, they were also used as a status symbol.
There are a variety of types of quern-stone, with the two most common being the saddle quern and the rotary quern. The saddle quern is produced by rocking or rolling the handstone using parallel motions (ie pushing and pulling the handstone), which forms a shape looking like a saddle. These are the most ancient and widely used type of quern-stone. The handstones for saddle querns are generally either roughly cylindrical (not unlike a rolling pin) and used with both hands, or rough hemispheres and used with one hand. This provides a crushing motion, not a grinding action and is more suitable for crushing malted grain. It is not easy to produce flour from a saddle quern with unmalted grain.
As the name implies, the rotary quern used circular motions to grind the material, meaning both the quern and the handstone were generally circular. The handstone of a rotary quern is much heavier than that of saddle quern and provides the necessary weight for the grinding of unmalted grain into flour. Rotary quern handstones are often referred to as either "beehive" or "disk" type.
Garnett in his 1800 tour of Scotland describes the use of a hand quern as follows - The quern consists of two circular pieces of stone, generally grit or granite, about twenty inches in diameter. In the lower stone is a wooden peg, rounded at the top; on this the upper stone is nicely balanced, so as just to touch the lower one, by means of a piece of wood fixed in a large hole in this upper piece, but which does not fill the hole, room for feeding the mill being left on each side: it is so nicely balanced, that though there is fome friction from the contact of the two stones, yet a very small momentum will make it revolve several times, when it has no corn in it. The corn being dried, two women fit down on the ground, having the quern between them; the one feeds it, while the other turns it round, relieving each other occasionally, and singing some Celtic songs all the time. [2]
Other forms of quern-stone include hopper-rubbers and Pompeian mills, both used by the Romans.
The legal requirement in Scotland for tenants to use the baron's mill meant that early leases of mills gave to the miller the legal right to break quern-stones which were being used in defiance of thirlage agreements.[3]
A quern was discovered at Dunadd in Scotland which has a cross carved into the upper stone. The cross has expanded terminals and ultimately derives its form from Roman and Byzantine predecessors of the fifth and sixth centuries. This example has a high quality of finishing which reflects its 'cost' and enhances its symbolic value and social significance. The cross is likely to have 'protected' the corn and the resultant flour from evil, such as fungal rust or ergot. Various legends give miraculous power to mill-stones and several have been found which have been re-used in the construction of burial cists or as tomb stones. The association between quern stones and burial may be because they are used in the process of making bread, the staple of life. A broken or disused quern therefore can be seen as symbolic of death.[4] Quern stones may therefore have had a greater significance than being just utilitarian objects; they were certainly traded in Saxon England and early Christian Ireland.[4]
In Clonmacnoise, near Athlone in Co. Offaly a quern stone was found which has made into a tombstone, having been ornamented and the name Sechnasach, who died in 928 AD, inscribed onto it.[5]
- ^ Coe, Michael D. (1999). The Maya, Sixth edition, New York: Thames & Hudson, p. 13. ISBN 0-500-28066-5.
- ^ a b Garnett, T. Observations on a Tour through the Highlands and part of the Western Isles of Scotland, particularly Staff and Icolmkill. Pub. T. Cadell. The Strand. P. 155.
- ^ Gauldie, Enid (1981). The Scottish Miller 1700 - 1900. Pub. John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-067-7.
- ^ a b Campbell, Ewan (1987). A cross-marked quern from Dunadd and other evidence for relations between Dunass and Iona. Proc Soc Antiq Scot. ISSN 0081-1564. V. 117, P. 105 - 117.
- ^ Bord, Janet and Colin. (1973) Mysterious Britain. Pub. Garnstone. ISBN 0-85511-1801. P. 62.
- DeBoer, W. 2001 Of dice and women: gambling and exchange in Native North America, In Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 8:215-268.
- Gauldie, Enid 1981 The Scottish Miller 1700 - 1900. Pub. John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-067-7. 98-99.
- Lease, N., Laurent, R., Blackburn, M. and Fortin, M. 2001 Caractérisation pétrologie d’artefact en basalte provenant de Tell ‘Atij et de Tell Gudeda en Syrie de Nord (3000-2500 av J-C), In Serie archéométrie 1:227-240.
- Wright, K. 1992 Ground stone assemblage variations and subsistence strategies in the Levant, 22,000 to 5,500 bp, unpublished PhD thesis, Yale University.
- Rutter, G. 2003 Basaltic-rock procurement systems of the southern Levant - Information on basaltic artefacts, including quern-stones. Also includes PDF version of the PhD thesis.