Grinding Slab

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. 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.

Prehistoric technology
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Famous quotes containing the word slab:

    Another day. Deliberations are recessed
    In an iron-blue chamber of that afternoon
    On which we wore things and looked well at
    A slab of business rising behind the stars.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)