Stone Bowl
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From the Road to Westford Exhibit
Circular gray granite bowl, or mortar, normally used for processing food like corn. It is about eight inches in circumference, and five inches in height. A large stone pestle was the grinding tool used with it. Some stone mortars were much larger, immobile, and often had multiple processing locations. Our mortar is undated, but stone mortars and pestles were most commonly used around 8,000 years ago in the Northeast. Wood was the most common material used by the time of large scale European colonization in the 1600s. Mortars and pestles were common around the world for processing food and medicines. Stone, such as marble, is the most common version used in North American kitchens today, albeit closer to six inches in diameter, rather than over eight.
N.2010.1.5