Stone slab in east-central California used to grind acorns
In archaeology, a grinding slab is a ground stone artifact generally used to grind plant materials into usable size, though some slabs were used to shape other ground stone artifacts.[1] Some grinding stones are portable; others are not and, in fact, may be part of a stone outcropping.
Grinding slabs used for plant processing typically acted as a coarse surface against which plant materials were ground using a portable hand stone, or mano ("hand" in Spanish). Variant grinding slabs are referred to as metates or querns, and have a ground-out bowl. Like all ground stone artifacts, grinding slabs are made of large-grained materials such as granite, basalt, or similar tool stones.
^Shoemaker, Anna C.; Davies, Matthew I.J.; Moore, Henrietta L. (2017). "Back to the Grindstone? The Archaeological Potential of Grinding-Stone Studies in Africa with Reference to Contemporary Grinding Practices in Marakwet, Northwest Kenya". African Archaeological Review. 34 (3): 415–435. doi:10.1007/s10437-017-9264-0. ISSN 1572-9842.
stone artifacts. Some grinding stones are portable; others are not and, in fact, may be part of a stone outcropping. Grindingslabs used for plant processing...
Parc le Breos in Wales. An orthostat is a large stone with a more or less slab-like shape that has been artificially set upright (so a cube-shaped block...
crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs:...
pavement, diamond grinding is typically performed in conjunction with other concrete pavement preservation (CPP) techniques such as road slab stabilization...
single-chambered, were graves with a huge stone slab stacked over other similarly large stone slabs; they have been discovered all across Europe and...
tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production (e.g. pottery, bone implements). They were...
pecking, pounding, grinding, drilling, and incising, and includes things such as mortars / metates, pestles (or manos), grindingslabs, hammerstones, grooved...
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