Native American Stone Manos, Group of Three Grinding Handstones

Native American, Southwestern United States. Three stone manos of rounded rectangular form, used with a metate for grinding and processing food, pigments, medicines, and similar materials. The first is a fine-grained tan stone with a smooth worn face and rounded edges. The second is a coarse conglomerate or sandstone in reddish brown with visible inclusions across the surface. The third is a shorter reddish brown stone. The mano (Spanish for "hand") and metate together constitute one of the longest-lived technologies in the Americas, in continuous use from the Archaic period into the historic era and still employed in parts of Mexico and Central America. Wear patterns are diagnostic: a single flat facet suggests a back-and-forth reciprocal stroke on a trough metate, while facets on two or more faces indicate rotation as the grinder turned the stone to expose fresh surface. Skeletal studies of maize-farming populations record the physical cost of this work, with characteristic arthritic changes in the wrists, knees, and lower back of the women who spent hours daily at the grinding slab. Item # 191363

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