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Description: | Half of the upper stone of a greisen rotary quern, semi-circular in plan and plano-convex in profile and section. The upper surface shows the remains of a central hopper or recess, and a wedge-shaped aperture at one end which was part of the socket for slotting a wooden handle into the stone quern. The handle would have allowed the upper section of the two-part quern to be rotated over the base section, with the grain between the two, so that it was ground into flour. The break beyond the socket, an obvious weak spot, looks more recent as it is not too abraded.
The diameter of the quern is 360 mm, the width 140 mm and the height 90 mm, and the diameter of the central opening is 90 mm.
This quern fragment was found along with other fragments of greisen and granite rotary querns in a field where an earlier hedge has been moved so that these fragments my have been incorporated into this hedge in the past, and have since been strewn around the field.
The greisen probably derives from the nearby outcrop which flanks the granite at Tregonning Hill in Breage. Greisen is an altered granite where the felspar has disappeared and been replaced by white mica, which is also soft, and the dark inclusions are tourmaline, which is hard, creating an undulating surface which is better for grinding.
Romano-British period
Quinnell (2004) illustrates a similar example from Trethurgy on page 147, Fig.72, No.S44. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Tyacke, Anna - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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