Stone pestle mortar, stone tool, Yangshao culture, mortar width 16.60 cm, mortar length 21.00 cm, pestle length 13.00 cm, pestle circumference 18.5 cm. The Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force was excavated in Yanshi Gray Mouth and entered the Henan Museum in 1963.
Ishigiusu
Stone pestle mortar, consisting of stone pestle (chǔ) and stone mortar (jiù), is made of bluestone grinding. The mortar is irregular semi-ovate with oval fossa and a cylindrical pestle, thick in the middle, thin at both ends, and smoothly ground throughout.
Stone pestle
Pestle mortar is the main grain processing tool of the Neolithic Age, consisting of pestles and mortars, which can either remove the shell of the grain to obtain polished rice, or mash the polished rice into powder. The method of operation is to put the grain into the mortar and pound it with a pestle to remove the grain skin or pound the rice into powder.
Archaeological data indicate that pestles and mortars appeared in the early and middle Neolithic periods, when stone millstones and stone grinding rods were still prevalent. In the Yangshao culture period, especially in the late Yangshao culture, in the Central Plains, pestles and mortars were used together with stone grinding discs and stone grinding rods. After the Yongsan culture, pestles began to dominate and gradually replaced stone grinding discs and stone grinding rods.
Stone pestle usu looking down
This stone pestle mortar is exquisitely made, well-preserved, and excavated from excavations, with an exact date, which can be used as a basis for dating. Its excavation provides valuable physical information for studying the development of productive forces in the Yangshao cultural period and the living conditions of people at that time.
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The excavations of pestles and mortars are quite extensive, involving almost all parts of the country. According to Mr. Ma Honglu's statistics, from the middle Of the Neolithic era to the beginning of the Bronze Age, 63% of the grain sites found in China have pestles and mortars, and the number has increased over time. The following is a selection of a few representative pestles from before the Han Dynasty for a brief comparison.
A Neolithic stone pestle collected by the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force in Zhengzhou is 14.50 cm long, 11.80 cm wide and 5.10 cm thick. The mortar is a near-diamond-shaped cube, with a mortar hole, the mortar is red, the pestle is black, the mortar and pestle head are very smooth, there are traces of use.
Stone pestle mortar collected in Zhengzhou
Excavated in Nanyang, Henan Province, the stone pestle mortar of the Qujialing culture period is sandy and stoney, with a molar height of 21.50 cm, a pestle length of 18.40 cm, a pestle diameter of 6.00 cm, and a molar length of 37.50 cm, with a slight diamond shape and an oval molar in the center of the mortar. The pestle is a cone with a flush end and a sharper end.
Stone pestle mortar excavated from Nanyang
Excavated from Zhenping County, Nanyang City, Henan Province, the pottery mortar of the Yangshao culture period, with a caliber of 7.70 cm and a height of 9.60 cm, a slightly closed mouth, a deep oblique abdomen, a flat bottom, and made of sand.
Pottery mortar excavated from Zhenping County
Hunan Lixian Dutuo Pagoda original site found 3 pieces of stone pestle, are made of natural gravel, sandstone grinding, 3 pieces of shape are not the same: - the shape of the piece is similar to the garlic hammer, the pestle head is large, the handle is small, the section is round, the pestle head can be seen in the scars and pedica left by the pounding, the pestle length is 25 cm, the pestle head diameter is 7 cm, the handle diameter is 3.5 cm, but unfortunately the crack is two halves, only half is found; the other piece is a long strip, with different ends of thickness, 32 cm long, 7 cm head width, The shank is 9.5 cm wide; there is another piece, the thickness of the two ends is very different, the middle cross-section is oval, there are traces of use at both ends, and abrasion marks are visible around the body.
Stone pestle found in Li County, Hunan
A late Neolithic pestle excavated from the Yangba Beach site in Jiangbei, Chongqing, is 20.7 cm long and 5.2 cm wide. Metamorphic sandstone, rounded in strips with hammer marks around it.
Stone pestle excavated from the site of Yangba Beach
In 1960, the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force excavated a Shang Dynasty stone pestle excavated in Linru, with a length of 11.50 cm. Made of natural pebbles, the waist is slightly machined, the head is thick and rounded, and the rear end is slightly thinner than the front.
Shang Dynasty stone pestle excavated from Linru
The Shang Dynasty stone pestle excavated from Xiaotun in Anyang is 7.30 cm high and 11.50 cm in abdominal circumference, with a rectangular body, polished throughout, straight on both sides, wide on one side and narrow at the rear end.
A Shang Dynasty stone pestle excavated from Xiaotun in Anyang
In 1958, the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force excavated a fragment of a Shang Dynasty stone mortar excavated in Nanzhao. The stone mortar is 40.50 cm long and has an irregular polygonal shape with obvious abrasive marks in the middle.
Fragments of Shang Dynasty stone mortar unearthed in Nanzhao
In 1960, the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force excavated a Han Dynasty stone mortar excavated in Mengjin, Luoyang, with a diameter of 6.50 cm and a height of 8.00 cm. Red sand stone, usur-shaped vessel below the upper circle, with a checkered pattern engraved on the upper part and a triangular ornament of the horizontal and oblique parallel line group at the lower part.
Stone mortar excavated from Mengjin
In May 1972, the Eastern Han Dynasty portrait stone mortar excavated in Xinmi City, Zhengzhou, is 32.00 cm high, 23.00 cm wide on the upper side and 17.00 cm wide on the lower side. The statue is wide and narrow on the upper and lower parts of the stone mortar, and the four sides are carved with the first ring, the jade rabbit pounding medicine, the human-animal fight, the trees and so on.
A portrait stone mortar excavated from Xinmi City
Through the simple comparison of the above several pieces of pestle mortar, combined with the materials collected by the author, it can be roughly seen: First, the early stone mortar and stone pestle are small in volume, and the shape is irregular, and the production is relatively rough, and the set of stone pestles introduced in this article is a relatively exquisite set of production. At present, archaeological materials show that the stone mortar system of the Han Dynasty is relatively regular, more elaborate, and has certain decorations. Secondly, the early stone pestle has no law on the change of form, that is to say, there is no obvious significance of staging classification from the shape, for example, the stone pestle described in this article and the stone pestle collected in Zhengzhou mentioned above are more carefully ground, while several other stone pestles that are close to or later in their era are mostly very rough; for example, the above stone pestles, although there are certain differences in shape, do not see the law. The above physical data show that in the shape and processing degree of the stone pestle, there is little difference in time and space. This may be due to the fact that the stone pestle is a relatively simple tool that can be used with a little preparation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > author profile</h1>
Gu Yongjie, male, Ph.D. in the History of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, engineer of Henan Museum, is committed to research in the fields of ancient and modern technology history in China.