The use of grinding stones for vegetal food processing, and possibly the production of flour, was widespread across Europe from at least 30,000 years ago. However, in many non-Westernised, non-mechanised cultures they are still manufactured and used regularly and have only been replaced in many parts of the world in the last century or so.
They were generally replaced by millstones once mechanised forms of milling appeared, particularly the water mill and the windmill, although animals were also used to operate the millstones. Quern-stones have been used by numerous civilizations throughout the world to grind materials, the most important of which was usually grain to make flour for bread-making. Grain Revolving beehive quern-stones and a saddlestone on display at Cliffe Castle Museum, in Keighley, West Yorkshire. One class of upper quern-stones has from two to three sockets for the rod used to turn them and this is thought to reflect the need to reduce wear and tear by having alternative points of contact when in active use. Most handstones have a handle hole on the upper surface, but one class of quern-stones have a slot handle which indicates that a piece of wood was placed horizontally and protruded out from the edge so that the operator could turn the stone by standing and using a rod vertically. The upper stone sometimes had a cup-shaped area around the hopper hole with a raised edge. to be added but still acted as a centering device. Sometimes a millrind was present as a piece of wood (or other material), which allowed the cereal etc. Quern-stones are frequently identifiable by their grooved working surfaces which enabled the movement of flour. The upper stones were usually concave while the lower ones were convex. ContentsĪn old Gaelic proverb is "The quern performs best when the grindstone has been pitted." Design of quern-stones They were first used in the Neolithic era to grind cereals into flour. A handle slot contained a handle which enabled the rotary quern to be rotated. The central hole of a rotary quern is called the eye, and a dish in the upper surface is known as the hopper.
The upper stone was moved in a back-and-forth motion across the saddle quern.
The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a saddle quern, while the upper mobile stone is called a muller, rubber or handstone. Quern-stones are stone tools for hand- grinding a wide variety of materials. The upper stone of a Scottish hand quern from Dalgarven Mill, North Ayrshire An ancient tool used to grind food items in Nepal Nepali women using quern-stones to grind a food item
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