They are also known in Scotland. One of granite, found near Wick,[1] is in the National Museum at Edinburgh; as is also another, 20 inches by 12 inches, with a rubber 12 inches by 8 inches, found in a cave near Cullen, Banffshire.[2]
They likewise occur in Shetland.[3] Mr. J. W. Cursiter has a long narrow muller with a curved back, in which are five grooves to receive the fingers, so as to give it the appearance of being a fragment of an ammonite.
Saddle-querns of the same character occur also in France.[4] I have a small example from Chateaudun. One from Chassemy[5] (Aisne) has been figured.
Some were likewise found in the Genista Cave at Gibraltar.[6] They are common in West Prussia and in the Island of Rügen, as well as in Scandinavia generally.
A German saddle-quern, from the ancient cemetery at Monsheim, has been engraved by Lindenschmit.[7] Others are mentioned by Klemm.[8] MM. Siret have also found them in their explorations in Spain.
It will have been observed, in the instances I have cited, that the movable muller or grinding-stone is not spherical, but elongated; but what is possibly the more ancient form approached more closely to a pestle and mortar in character, and consisted of a bed-stone with a slight concavity in it, and a more or less spherical stone for a pounder.
A grinding-stone of granite, with a cavity, apparently for bruising grain by a globular stone, was found in Cornwall,[9] and undressed slabs with concavities of the size and shape of an ordinary soup-plate, are of frequent occurrence in the Hebrides.[10] Others have been found in company with stone balls, in the ancient habitations in Anglesea.
Fig. 171 shows a trough of stone, found at Ty Mawr,[11] Holyhead, by the late Hon. W. O. Stanley, who kindly lent me the wood-cuts of Figs. 170 and 171. The cylindrical grinding-stone or muller was found within it, and has a central cavity on each face, to give the hand a better hold in grinding. A similar appliance was found at Pen-y-Bonc[12] in the same island.
A triturating trough from Cleveland[13] has been figured.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. ii. p. 377.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. vii. p. 9.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. xi. p. 176.
- ↑ Garrigou et Filhol, "Age de la Pierre polie," &c., p. 27. Arch. Camb., 4th S., vol. i. p. 292.
- ↑ "Mus. Préh.," No. 587.
- ↑ Trans. Preh. Cong., 1868, p. 155.
- ↑ "Alt. u. h. v.," vol. ii. Heft viil. Taf. i. 16.
- ↑ "Cult.-Wiss.," p. 88.
- ↑ Arch. Camb., 3rd S., vol. iii. p. 356.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. iv. p. 117.
- ↑ Arch. Journ., vol. xxvii. p. 160, pl. ii. 1.
- ↑ A. J., vol. xxiv. p. 247.
- ↑ Atkinson's "Cleveland," p. 40.
