Ancient Stone Tool

[Wrenchmensch]

We live along the banks of a Wild and Scenic River known locally as the White Clay Creek. 300 years ago, the Lenni Lenape people were living in a village called Opasiskunk. The village was fairly large, covering several acres.  Excavations in the area indicate native people lived in the area from the early Archaic Period (8000 BC) through the early 18th century.  The area is now in a large "preserve"  which takes up half our township and extends into Delaware. 

My wife and I  walk for miles along the White Clay Creek for recreation.  Occasionally, we find stone tools.  The other day, on one of the creek's stony beaches, I found what appears to be a 6-inch pestle, a common tool used for grinding corn and other foods.   Placed in the hand, one realizes the subtle shaping of the handle to accommodate fingertips and the palm.  The 2-inch working end is rounded to provide 360 degrees of grinding surface.

[Papaw]

Great find! They probably ground the grain on a large flat rock.

[Rustn Dust]

This may have started out flat, but if I were better with a camera, you could see it's now a bowl shape.  The little rock is just one I found.  I have no idea what the real hand stone looked like.  I remember reading somewhere that these grind stones are almost always found with a broken edge.  Hit with plows maybe?  I don't know anything about archaeology, but someone told me once that the stone points, stone axes, and other tools we find here in northern Missouri were used 1200, or 1500 years ago.  Maybe this grind stone came from the same period.  I don't know what cultures were here then.

[EVILDR235]

I also have a stone tool. It has a Patent No. 1 scratched on it. I looked it up and the patent was held by a Mr. F. Flintstone. LOL.---That is a nice find.

EvilDr235

[Papaw]

But Slate Rock and Gravel Company produced it and made all the profit from it,

[Branson]

This may have started out flat, but if I were better with a camera, you could see it's now a bowl shape.  The little rock is just one I found.  I have no idea what the real hand stone looked like.  I remember reading somewhere that these grind stones are almost always found with a broken edge.  Hit with plows maybe?  I don't know anything about archaeology, but someone told me once that the stone points, stone axes, and other tools we find here in northern Missouri were used 1200, or 1500 years ago.  Maybe this grind stone came from the same period.  I don't know what cultures were here then.

Mississippian culture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture#Chronology

Yours is a metate.  Especially for grains, the metate is used with a "mano," which is generally rather cigar shaped, and held with a hand on either end.  Generally found in South and Central America.  The Mississippian culture had strong connections with Central American native cultures.  For grinding chilis and herbs, a molcajete is used instead, and has a deeper depression.

In California, acorns were a major food source, and these were ground in deep depressions with a rock that looks far more like a pestle.  I've seen these separately, but also as numbers of holes formed in large sections of granite outcroppings.

[amertrac]

Great find, keep digging   bob w.