VM_365 Day 94. Reconstructed Roman Rotary Quern

VM 94

Today’s image is a reconstruction of a Roman Rotary quern. The quern stones were found on two separate sites, one from Broadstairs (bottom) and one from St. Nicholas at Wade (top).

The stone on the base is made of Hertfordshire Puddingstone, a natural conglomerate frequently used to make quern stones, the upper stone is Folkstone Greensand.

The base has a socket in the centre for a spindle to hold the two sections together. The top stone has a hole for a handle to allow the quern to be rotated backwards and forwards and a hole shaped to form a hopper where grain is poured in. The grain then passes between the grinding surfaces of the upper and lower stones, crushing them into meal or flour.

 

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