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FACETED QUERN-STONE (TYA 631: 335)

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FACETED QUERN-STONE (TYA 631: 335)

 

Type: A stone polished even on one or more faces.

Use: Grinding of corn.

Site: Raisio, Ihala, Mulli abode

Period: Viking Age Age / Crusade Age / Early Middle Ages.

Dating: 980-1220 A.D.

Size: 98 mm × 90 mm × 84 mm.

Weight: 1 091 g.

Photographer: Antti Huittinen.

 

According to botanical investigations, rye, barley, oat and wheat were cultivated in the fields of Mulli abode. Wheat has a remarkable great share of the floral residues, when comparing with the data from elsewhere in Finland.

In the Iron Age and Middle Ages, however, the most important variety of grain were rye and barley because they are not sensitive to frost. Of rye, mostly porridge and bread were made, of barley, beer too. The corn was ground with a faceted quern-stone, of the size of a fist, which was rubbed against a flagstone. Probably at the end of the Iron Age and in the early Middle Ages, a more sophisticated hand-mill or quern became in use. It is possible that simple watermills existed.

 

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Coordinates: x=109.55, y=511.95, z=637, unit 5002b.

 


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