eBay

Chronology:

Broad period: Prehistoric

Specific Circa: Middle Neolithic to Early Bronze Age:

Date from: 4500 BC:

Date to: 1800 BC:

Dimensions and weight:

Circular Flint Pestle:

Diametre: 39 mm: weight: 69.11 grams:

Oval Quartzite Mortar:

Length: 103 mm: Width: 88 mm: Thickness: 28 mm: Weight: 414.44 grams:

Background Note:

Mortars and pestles were invented in the Stone Age when humans found that processing materials by grinding and crushing into smaller particles allowed improved use and various advantages: Archaeologists have found ancient mortars and pestles in Southwest Asia that date back to approximately 35000 BC: Ancient Africans, Sumerians, Egyptians, Native Americans, Chinese, Indians, Greeks and Celts and countless other people used mortar and pestles for processing materials and substances for cooking, art, cosmetics, simple chemicals, ceramics and medicine:

Description:

Here we have a small mortar and pestle in tan and brown *quartzite: Both stones are highly polished with wear seen to the corresponding contact surfaces: Therefore the mortar grinding surface has a slight concave form where, the circular flint pestle has seen repeatable use to the surface: It is rare to locate a set as here, and I suspect a contemporary offering of the items in the ancient past **:

Please note that is often the case with the mortar stone examples that this stone has also been used to polish / grind in its own right: We can see that to one particular side-face that the stone shows great wear, where it has been used possibly as a 'Muller' / hand-stone stone or similar - please see picture 8 for a visual confirmation:

Provenance: Original Finder – Northern Cambridgeshire Ancient River Course, Fen Edge:

I recovered the mortar and pestle within a section of a deep ancient riverbed [now dry], upon the Fen edge in Northern Cambridgeshire in Dec. 2023: Having found the mortar stone first, I then carefully investigated the surrounding vertical context and recovered the pestle stone approximately 10” to the right and within the same section:

* Quartzite is a hard, non-foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone: Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression with orogenic belts:

** This is now the 3^rd complete set I have located in the immediate area of this prehistoric river bed: I suspect that there may have been a form of ceremonial offering made with these stones in this location however, I am yet to develop this thesis further – the search continues:

Reference material and further reading:

Where possible ancient artifacts may be referenced to similar material observed in the following publications within my collection:

British Artefacts Vol.1, 2 and 3: Brett Hammond [Greenlight Publishing 2010]:
Celtic & Roman Artefacts: Nigel Mills [Greenlight Publishing 2007]:

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome: Mary Beard [Profile Books 2015]:

50 Bronze Age Artefacts: Portable Antiquities Scheme: Dot Boughton [Amberley Publishing 2021]:

Pottery in Britain 4000BC to AD 1900: Lloyd Laing [Greenlight Publishing 2003]:

British Iron Age Coins In The British Museum: Richard Hobbs [British Museum 1996]:

Swords of The Viking Age: Ian Peirce: [The Boydell Press 2003]:

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society Volume 85: [Cambridge University Press
2019]

Mesolithic Europe: Geoff Bailey / Penny Spikins [Cambridge University Press 2008]

Viking Art: James Graham-Campbell: [Thames & Hudson, London 2018]

Roman Coins Vol. 1, 2 & 3: David R Sear: [Spink London 2000]:

The Roman Cavalry: Karen R. Dixon: [B. . Batsford 1997]:

Rome’s Saxon Shore: Coastal Defenses of Roman Britain AD 250 – 500: Nic Fields [Osprey Publishing 2006]:

Amulets of Ancient Egypt: Carol Andrews: [University of Texas Press / British Museum Press 1994]:

The Uniforms of the Roman World: Military dress, weapons, artillery, ships, siege engines and fortifications: Kevin F. Killey: [Anness Publishing 2017]:

Where possible finger rings may be referenced to similar material observed in the following publications within my collection:

Victorian and Albert Museum CATALOGUE OF FINGER RINGS 1930: C.C.Oman [Anglia Publishing. 1991 – Now out of print]:

Finger Rings: Diana Scarisbrick / Martin Henig: [Ashmolean Museum Oxford. 2003]:

Ancient Rings An Illustrated Collectors Guide: T. N. Polio: [McFarland & Co Inc. 2018:

1000 Rings: Inspiring Adornments of the Hand: Le Van, Marthe; Ebendorf, Robert [W: Lark Books 2004]: