NAtive American (Navajo or Anaszi) Grinding Stone

[Ravenjr]

I found this last year hiking with my in-laws. It looks pretty old, but is in really good condition. Can anyone tell me more about it. I know the photo isn't the best quality, I took it with phone.

 

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[Daugela]

I live in AZ and have come across these. It's a grinding stone - for grinding corn, etc. Is it concave in the middle - smoother than the outer parts?

 

[RGINN]

From the pic, looks like a metate (the grinding basin) and below it the mano (the grinder). Hope I got that right. Very common in agricultural societies as they were used in grinding grains. We found a lot of grinding basins in Western Oklahoma made of sandstone. The flour produced resulted in a lot of wear to the teeth. We never picked very many of them up as they were so common. Every so often we would find one made of granite which came from 75 miles away. These would produce a less grittier flour. It also appeared rather than lug them around the countryside, the people would turn them upside down and leave them at campsites for when they returned. We found a lot by turning over large flat looking rocks. The ones we found dated to about 800 to a 1,000yrs. ago based on association with other archaeological evidence. But I would say they have been in use for thousands of years, or at least since when a people began gathering or farming grains and seeds. Cool find, and keep looking around as these are usually found in association with village sites.

 

[Ravenjr]

It is smoother in the middle than the outside, and the grinder has some smoothness to it as well. It was found near the base of a cliff, but not near any dwellings that I know of. My in-laws said that they have hiked that way many times, but had never seen it before. It was pretty heavy, probably about 20 lbs all together.