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Concept
Metate
Summary
A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organic materials during food preparation (e.g., making tortillas). Similar artifacts have been found in other regions, such as the sil-batta in Bihar and Jharkhand, India as well as other grinding stones in China.
While varying in specific morphology, metates are typically made of a large stone with a smooth depression or bowl worn into the upper surface. Materials are ground on the metate using a smooth hand-held stone known as a mano or metlapil. This action consists of a horizontal grinding motion that differs from the vertical crushing motion used in a mortar and pestle. The depth of the bowl varies, though they are typically not deeper than those of a mortar; deeper metate bowls indicate either a longer period of use or greater degree of activity (i.e., economic specialization).
The specific angles of the metate body allow for a proficient method of turning grains into flour.
Lesley Téllez describes the grinding action of a metate as using "your wrists to kind of rotate the metlapil forward, while at the same time pressing downward, hard, with the palms of your hands."
Metates can be categorized by the shape of the grinding surface. One categorization identifies four such shapes: flat, flat/concave, basin, and trough.
Basin-shaped metates are used with a circular grinding stroke, while flat and trough-shaped metates are used with a back-and-forth reciprocal or reciprocal-rocking stroke.
Another type of metate called a grinding slab may also be found among boulder or exposed bedrock outcroppings. The upper face of the stone is used for grinding materials, such as acorns, that results in the smoothing of the stone's face and the creation of pocked dimples.
The use of metates is estimated to have begun in the Upper Cenolithic period in Mexico, sometime between 5000 BC-3000 BC,
and in the Middle Archaic period in the American Southwest, 3500 BC.
Official source
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