250px, Stone slab in east-central California used to grind acorns
In
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...
, 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. 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
Mano may refer to:
People
* Mano people, an ethnic group in Liberia
* Mano (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Mano (Mozambican footballer) (born 1984), real name Celso Halilo de Abdul
* Mano (Portuguese footballer) (b ...
("hand" in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
). Variant grinding slabs are referred to as
metate
A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organic ...
s or
quern
Quern ( da, Kværn) is a former municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of ...
s, 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.
{{Prehistoric technology, state=expanded
Archaeological artefact types
Lithics
Indigenous tools of the Americas
Food grinding tools
Mesoamerican artifacts
