- Ground stone
In
archaeology , ground stone is a category ofstone tool formed by the grinding of a coarse-grainedtool stone , either purposely or incidentally. Ground stone tools are usually made ofbasalt ,rhyolite ,granite , or other macrocrystallineigneous stones whose coarse structure makes them ideal for grinding other materials, including plants and other stones (Banning, 2000). In Europe the adoption of ground stone technology is associated closely with theNeolithic . In the Levant ground stones appear inMesolithic 2 (Natufian ).Some ground stone tools are incidental, caused by use with other tools:
mano s, for example, are hand stones used in conjunction withmetate s and othergrinding slab s (querns), and develop their ground surfaces through wear. Other ground stone tools includeadze s, celts, andaxe s, which are manufactured using a labor-intensive, time-consuming method of repeated grinding against a harder stone or with sand, often using water as alubricant . These tools are often made using durable finer-grained materials rather than coarse materials.References
Banning, E.B. 2000, "The Archaeologist Laboratory, The Analysis of Archaeological Data." pg. 151. Plenum Publishers, New York
Moore, D.T., 1983, Petrological aspects of some sharpening stones, touchstones, and milling stones. In "The Petrology of Archaeological Artefaces," Clarendon Press, Oxford
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