View source for Quern-stone

{{Short description|Stone tool for hand-grinding}}
{{tooshort|date=March 2025}}
{{Distinguish|Quarrystone}}
[[File:Basalt quern.jpg|thumb|Disc quern made of basalt stone]]
[[File:Jato An ancient tool used to grind food item in Nepal.ogv|thumb|Nepali women using quern-stones to grind grains]]

A '''quern-stone''' is a [[stone tool]] for [[mill (grinding)|hand-grinding]] a wide variety of materials, especially for various types of grains.

They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a ''saddle quern'', while the upper mobile stone is called a ''muller'', ''rubber'', or ''handstone''. The upper stone was moved in a back-and-forth motion across the saddle quern. Later querns are known as ''rotary querns''. The central hole of a rotary quern is called the ''eye'', and a dish in the upper surface is known as the ''hopper''. A ''handle slot'' contained a handle which enabled the rotary quern to be rotated.<ref name="McLaren113p106">{{cite journal |vauthors=McLaren D, Hunter F | year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proc Soc Antiq Scot | volume = 113 | pages = 106 | issn = 0081-1564 }}</ref>

They were first used in the [[Neolithic]] era to grind cereals into flour.<ref name="britmus">{{cite web | url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe/q/quern_stone_for_making_flour.aspx | title=Explore/Highlights: Quern stone for making flour |publisher=The British Museum | location=London |archive-date=April 21, 2009  | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090421031008/https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe/q/quern_stone_for_making_flour.aspx}}</ref>

== Design ==

The upper stones were usually concave while the lower ones were convex. Quern-stones are frequently identifiable by their grooved working surfaces which enabled the movement of flour. Sometimes a [[millrind]] was present as a piece of wood (or other material), which allowed the cereal etc. to be added but still acted as a centering device. The upper stone sometimes had a cup-shaped area around the hopper hole with a raised edge.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = McLaren D, Hunter F | year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | volume = 138 | pages = 106 | issn = 0081-1564 }}</ref> Most handstones have a handle hole on the upper surface, but one class of quern-stones have a slot handle which indicates that a piece of wood was placed horizontally and protruded out from the edge so that the operator could turn the stone by standing and using a rod vertically.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = McLaren D, Hunter F| year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | volume = 138 | pages = 112 | issn = 0081-1564 }}</ref> One class of upper quern-stones has from two to three sockets for the rod used to turn them and this is thought to reflect the need to reduce wear and tear by having alternative points of contact when in active use.<ref name="McLaren115">{{cite journal | vauthors = McLaren D, Hunter F| year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | volume = 115 | pages = 106 | issn = 0081-1564 }}</ref>

== Grain ==
[[Image:Quernupper.jpg|thumb|The upper stone of a Scottish hand quern from [[Dalgarven Mill]], North Ayrshire]]
[[Image:Cliffecastlemus 016.jpg|thumb|Revolving beehive quern-stones and [lower] a saddlestone on display at [[Cliffe Castle Museum]], in [[Keighley]], [[West Yorkshire]]]]
[[File:Native women grinding wheat, Palestine.tiff|thumb| Women grind grain with a quern, [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] (1900)]]

Quern-stones have been used by numerous civilizations throughout the world to grind materials, the most important of which was usually [[cereal|grain]] to make [[flour]] for [[bread]]-making. They were generally replaced by [[millstone]]s once mechanised forms of [[Mill (grinding)|milling]] appeared, particularly the [[water mill]] and the [[windmill]], although animals were also used to operate the millstones. However, in many non-Westernised, non-mechanised cultures they are still manufactured and used regularly and have only been replaced in many parts of the world in the last century or so.

The use of grinding stones for vegetal food processing, and possibly the production of flour, was widespread across [[Europe]] from at least 30,000 years ago.<ref>Anna Revedin et al. (2010). "Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing". ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'', vol. 107, no. 44, pp. 18815–18819 (18815)</ref>

In early [[Maya civilization]]s the process of [[nixtamalization]] was distinctive in that hard, ripe kernels of maize (corn) were boiled in water and lime, thus producing nixtamal which was then made into unleavened dough for flat cakes by grinding with a handstone on a saddle-type quern (''metate'').<ref>{{cite book |author=Coe, Michael D. | year = 1999 | title = The Maya |edition=sixth | publisher = Thames & Hudson | location = New York | isbn = 0-500-28066-5 | page = 13 }}</ref>

Quern stones were used in [[China]] at least 10,000 years ago to grind wheat into flour. The production of flour by rubbing wheat by hand took several hours.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Technology of Ancient China |last=Greenberger |first=Robert |publisher=Rosen Publishing Group |year=2005 |isbn=978-1404205581 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/technologyofanci0000gree/page/10 10] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/technologyofanci0000gree/page/10 }}</ref> Due to their form, dimensions, and the nature of the treatment of the surfaces, they reproduce precisely the most ancient implements used for grinding cereal grain into flour. Saddle querns were known in China during the Neolithic Age but rotary stone mills did not appear until the Warring States Period.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Science and Civilisation in China |at=Volume 6: Biology and Biological Technology. Part 5: Fermentations and Food Science. p. 463 |last=Huang |first=H. T. |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0521652704 |volume=6 |publication-date=November 30, 2000}}</ref> A prehistoric quern dating back to 23,000 BCE was found at the Longwangchan archaeological site, in Hukou, Shaanxi in 2007. The site is located in the heartland of the northern Chinese loess plateau near the Yellow River.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Archaeology of Early China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty |last=Shelach-Lavi |first=Gideon |author1-link=Gideon Shelach-Lavi |publisher= Cambridge University Press  |year=2015 |isbn=978-0521145251 |publication-date=January 26, 2015 |page=53}}</ref>

== Other materials ==

As well as grain, ethnographic evidence and [[Mesopotamian]] texts show that a wide range of foodstuffs and inorganic materials were processed using stone querns or mortars, including nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, meat, bark, pigments, temper and clay.<ref>Wright 1992:87f</ref> Moreover, one study analysing quern-stones noted that a number of querns had traces of [[arsenic]] and [[bismuth]], unlike their source rocks, and had levels of [[antimony]] which were ten times higher than those of the rocks. The authors concluded that this was probably due to the use of these querns in the preparation of medicines, cosmetics, dyes or even in the manufacture of alloys.<ref>Lease et al. 2001:235</ref>

Querns were widely used in grinding metals ores after mining extraction. The aim was to liberate fine ore particles which could then be separated by washing for example, prior to smelting. They were thus widely used in [[gold mining]] in antiquity.

In [[Shetland]], tobacco was not smoked when first introduced, but instead was ground up into [[Snuff (tobacco)|snuff]], and inhaled up the nose. Snuff-querns consisted of an upper and lower stone, fixed together by a central iron pivot. The quern was held on the user's lap, the eye of the quern was filled with dried tobacco leaves, and then the upper-stone was turned using the handle. The friction caused by the turning ground the leaves into a fine powder that built up around the edge of the lower-stone. Many snuff-querns had a small hole or cut made near the edge of the upper-stone, into which a pointed end of a lamb's horn was placed in order to turn the stone; an alternative to using a handle.<ref>[http://www.scran.ac.uk/000-000-591-022-C Snuff Quern]. Accessed 2009-11-20</ref>

== Incidental uses ==
[[Image:Quern-stones in China small.jpg|thumb|right|upright|A stack of quern-stones for sale in a market in [[Haikou]], [[Hainan]], [[China]]. These quern-stones are only about 30 cm wide.]]

Quern stones' ubiquity led to ancillary uses. For example, DeBoer, in his review of the traditional gambling games of North American tribes, reports that one of the games involved bouncing a group of split canes off a quern.<ref>DeBoer 2001:223.</ref>

Quern stones may have been used as improvised weapons, as mentioned in the Bible: "But a certain woman threw an upper-millstone on [[Abimelech (Judges)|Abimelech]]'s head, and crushed his skull." ([[Book of Judges|Judg.]] 9:53 [[NRSV]])

== Manufacture ==

The best type of stone from which to manufacture quern-stones are [[igneous]] rocks such as [[basalt]]. These have naturally rough surfaces, but grains do not detach easily, so the material being ground does not become gritty. However, such rocks are not always available, meaning that quern-stones have been manufactured from a wide variety of rocks, including [[sandstone]], [[quartzite]] and [[limestone]]. [[Quernmore]] Crag near [[Lancaster, Lancashire|Lancaster]] in England is named after the quarrying of millstone grit used to make quern stones in these parts. The names of the mountains of [[Whernside]] and [[Great Whernside]] in the [[Yorkshire Dales]] have the same origin.

Rutter was able to show, for the southern Levant, that basalt quern-stones were preferred to those manufactured from other rock types. Basalt quern-stones were therefore transported over long-distances, leading him to argue that, despite their everyday, utilitarian function, they were also used as a [[status symbol]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Rutter|first=Graham|title=Basaltic-rock procurement systems in the southern Levant|date=2003|publisher=PhD thesis, University of Durham|page=236|url=http://0lem.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/basalt-procurement/|access-date=12 March 2014}}</ref>

Research in Scotland has indicated that to a degree regional styles existed.<ref name="McLaren">{{cite journal |vauthors=McLaren D, Hunter F | year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proc Soc Antiq Scot | volume = 138 | pages = 122–125 | issn = 0081-1564 }}</ref>

== Types ==

[[Knocking stone]]s were used in the preparation of small quantities of cereal, however the earliest forms of quern were the saddle and trough querns. The earliest quern so far discovered dates to {{Circa|9,000 BCE}} and was found at Abu Hureyra, Syria.<ref name="britmus"/> A later development was the rotary quern, which takes several forms.

===Saddle quern===

The saddle quern is produced by rocking or rolling the muller using parallel motions (i.e., pushing and pulling the handstone), which forms a shape looking like a [[saddle]]. These are the most ancient and widely used type of quern-stone and were superseded around the 5th to the 4th century BC by the more efficient rotary quern.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=McLaren D, Hunter F | year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proc Soc Antiq Scot | volume = 138 | pages = 105–128 | doi = 10.9750/PSAS.138.105.128 | issn = 0081-1564 }}</ref> The handstones for saddle querns are generally either roughly cylindrical (not unlike a [[rolling pin]]) and used with both hands, or rough hemispheres and used with one hand. This provides a crushing motion, not a grinding action and is more suitable for crushing malted grain. It is not easy to produce flour from a saddle quern with unmalted grain. The muller is also referred to as a 'rubber' or 'mouler'.<ref>MacSween, A & Sharp, M (1989), ''Prehistoric Scotland.'' London : B.T.Batsford. {{ISBN|0-7134-6173-X}}. p. 17.</ref>

===Rotary quern===
{{See also|Jato (grinder)|Mo (grist mill)}}
[[file:Quern at Estonian Open Air Museum.jpg|thumb|Rotary hand quern at the Estonian Open Air Museum]]
[[file:Quern stones.JPG|thumb|Querns from the [[Whithorn]] Museum, [[Dumfries and Galloway]], southern Scotland]]
[[file:Handquern1.jpg|thumb|A hand quern being operated<ref name="Garnett155">Garnett, T. ''Observations on a Tour through the Highlands and part of the Western Isles of Scotland, particularly Staff and Icolmkill''. The Strand: T. Cadell. p. 155.</ref>]]
[[file:Girl with ponytail-Women at the Quern.jpg|thumb|The quern rests on the [[arisaid]] of the woman on the right, possibly to catch grain; she feeds the stone with grain from the bowl at her left.<ref>Woodcut from [[Thomas Pennant]]'s 1772 book ''A Tour in Scotland''</ref>]]

As the name implies, the rotary quern used circular motions to grind the material, meaning both the upper and lower quern were generally circular. The handstone of a rotary quern is much heavier than that of saddle quern and provides the necessary weight for the grinding of unmalted grain into flour. In some cases the grinding surfaces of the stones fit into each other, the upper stone being slightly concave and the lower one convex.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

; Beehive quern: In this type, the upper stone is hemispherical, or bun-shaped, with a central conical hopper to hold the grain that falls down a hole to the grinding surface. It is held in position with a pivot that fits into a central hole in the bottom stone. The upper stone also has a deep horizontal socket in its steep side in which to place the wooden peg used as a handle to rotate or oscillate the upper stone. This was the earliest type of rotary quern to appear in the British Isles. It arrived in Britain in the middle of the [[Iron Age]] (about 400–300 BC) and spread into the northern half of Ireland, probably from Scotland, some time after the 2nd century BC.<ref name="J.T. Koch, 2007 p. 150">J. T. Koch, ''An Atlas for Celtic Studies'' (2007), p. 150.</ref>
; Disc quern: Disc querns consist of two flat disc-shaped stones, an upper stone with a cylindrical perforation for containing a handle and a lower stone with a central spindle hole.<ref name="O'Sullivan2006"/> The adjustable, discoid rotary quern has larger, flatter and more discoid stones than the beehive type. The lower stone was completely perforated. The long handle rotated in a shallow socket in the upper surface of the upper stone. They are thought to have originated in [[Spain]] 2,500 years ago<ref name="Ritti et al. 2007, 159">{{harvnb|Ritti|Grewe|Kessener|2007|p=158, 159}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alonso i Martínez |first=Natalia |date=2015 |title=«Moliendo en ibero, moliendo en griego»: aculturación y resistencia tecnológica en el Mediterráneo occidental durante la Edad del Hierro |url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5294175 |journal=Vegueta: Anuario de la Facultad de Geografía e Historia |issue=15 |pages=23–36 |issn=1133-598X}}</ref> and appear to have arrived in maritime Scotland from about 200 BC with people who built the defensive homes known as [[broch]]s. This [[Iron Age]] type closely resembles the adjustable Highland quern still in use in historic times.<ref>E. W. MacKie, "The broch cultures of Atlantic Scotland: origins, high noon and decline": part 2: The Middle Iron Age: high noon and decline c.200 BC&nbsp;– AD 550, ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'', vol. 29, no 1. (2010), pp. 89-117 (100).</ref> In [[Ireland]], disc querns were the dominant type of querns in use between the years 500 [[Common Era|CE]]–1500 CE, and usually had a diameter of 30–60 cm.<ref name="O'Sullivan2006">O'Sullivan, ''et al.'' (2006), p. 24</ref> Garnett in his 1800 tour of Scotland describes the use of a hand quern as follows: {{blockquote|The quern consists of two circular pieces of stone, generally grit or granite, about twenty inches in diameter. In the lower stone is a wooden peg, rounded at the top; on this the upper stone is nicely balanced, so as just to touch the lower one, by means of a piece of wood fixed in a large hole in this upper piece, but which does not fill the hole, room for feeding the mill being left on each side: it is so nicely balanced, that though there is some friction from the contact of the two stones, yet a very small momentum will make it revolve several times, when it has no corn in it. The corn being dried, two women sit down on the ground, having the quern between them; the one feeds it, while the other turns it round, relieving each other occasionally, and singing some Celtic songs all the time.<ref name="Garnett155"/>}}
; Miniature quern: Under {{convert|200|mm|in|0|abbr=on}} in diameter and varying from roughly dressed to carefully worked, often with vertical handle sockets, a new class of querns has been identified having been overlooked in the past as weights, etc. In all respects they are like full sized quern stones and they show the typical wear signs that indicate that they were used for grinding small amounts of seeds, minerals or herbs. A suggestion that they may have been made as toys is thought to be unlikely.<ref name="McLaren2008">{{cite journal |vauthors=McLaren D, Hunter F | year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | volume = 138 | pages = 119–122 | issn = 0081-1564 | url = http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/psas/article/download/9718/9685/ }}</ref>

=== Other types ===
[[File:Roman mill.ogg|thumb|right|Sound of a Roman mill.]]

Other forms of quern-stone include hopper-rubbers and Pompeian mills, both used by the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]. The larger rotary mills were usually worked by a donkey or horse via an extension arm of wood attached to the upper stone.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

Querns utilizing crank-and-connecting rods were used in the [[Western Han Dynasty]].<ref name="Yan">{{cite book |author=Hong-Sen Yan, Marco Ceccarelli |title=International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dkq6_mdW43IC&q=han+dynasty+crank+and+connecting+rod&pg=PA249 |publisher=Springer Science and Business Media|isbn=978-1-4020-9484-2|page=236-236|year=2009 }}</ref>

== Legislation ==

There was a legal requirement in [[Scotland]] for tenants to pay for use of the baron's mill. Early leases of mills gave to the miller the legal right to destroy quern-stones which were being used in defiance of [[thirlage]] agreements.<ref name="Gauldie">Enid Gauldie, ''The Scottish Miller 1700–1900'' (John Donald 1981), {{ISBN|0-85976-067-7}}.</ref>

The obligations of thirlage eventually ceased to apply, but thirlage in Scotland was only formally and totally abolished on 28 November ([[Martinmas]]) 2004 by the [[Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2000/en/00en05-a.htm | title=UK Government Web Archive | access-date=2017-05-24 | archive-date=2008-08-10 | archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080810012035/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2000/en/00en05-a.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>

A similar obligation (the manorial right of [[Thirlage#Multure|mulcture]]) existed in England, established by custom only and not by [[statute]]. This was actively enforced using [[English law#Common law|common law]] provisions.<ref name=sbh>{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=Samuel Bealey |author1-link=Samuel Harrison |title=Practical Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant |orig-date=1834|date=1856|publisher=[[Sweet & Maxwell]] |location=London |pages=iv, 561 |edition=7 }}</ref> Among many recorded adjudications, the 1274 case of the abbot of St Albans Abbey, [[Cirencester]], who owned as lord of the manor the exclusive milling rights for the whole town, is notable: he instructed his bailiffs to search townspeople's homes and seize any quern-stones they found.  Eventually the town brought a case against the abbott at the town  [[assize]]s. They lost, and were ordered to pay the abbot 100 [[Mark (currency)#England and Scotland|marks]] in compensation for defaming him. To celebrate his victory, the abbot then used the stones to pave the floor of his  private parlour.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Richard |last2=Elton |first2=John |title=History of corn milling |date=1898 |publisher=[[Simpkin & Marshall]] |location=London |oclc=184882012 |page=215}}</ref> 

Exercising the prerogative  fell into gradual disuse and the last instance was in [[Wakefield]], Yorkshire, when in 1850 the town bought out the owner of Soke Mill for {{Inflation|UK|20,000|1850|fmt=eq|orig=yes|cursign=£|r=-4}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashton |first1=John |title=The History of Bread from Pre-historic to Modern Times |date=1904 |publisher=[[The Religious Tract Society]] |location=London |oclc=6124449 |page=115 |chapter=The miller and his tolls}}</ref>

== Ornament and inscription ==
[[File:झाटो.jpg|alt=A quern-stone (right), known as jato in Nepali, in the porch of a rural Nepali house.|thumb|A quern-stone (right), known as ''jato'' in [[Nepali language|Nepali]], on the porch of a rural [[Nepal|Nepali]] house.]]

A number of handstones have been found with extra carving, however it is not always straightforward to separate decoration from practical functional purposes. The designs invest in the appearance of the handstone when it is in circular motion, and the ability of the quern-stones to change seeds into flour may invoke a feeling of transformative magic that attracted both reverence and status to these household objects.<ref name="McLaren119">{{cite journal |vauthors=McLaren D, Hunter F | year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proc Soc Antiq Scot | volume = 119 | pages = 106 | issn = 0081-1564 | url = http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/psas/article/download/9718/9685/ }}</ref> Three beehive querns found in Ireland have inscribed ornament of [[La Tène culture|La Tène]] type,<ref name="J.T. Koch, 2007 p. 150"/> as do examples from England and Wales.<ref name="McLaren113p117">{{cite journal |vauthors=McLaren D, Hunter F | year = 2008 | title = New aspects of rotary querns in Scotland| journal = Proc Soc Antiq Scot | volume = 113 | pages = 117 | issn = 0081-1564 | url = http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/psas/article/download/9718/9685/ }}</ref> Many of the horizontal slot-handled quern-stones have decoration that usually follows the basic pattern of motifs that encircle the hopper and/or the handle slot. One type though has an irregular pattern of cup marks that encircle the hopper.<ref name="McLaren113p106" />

A quern was discovered at [[Dunadd]] in Scotland that has a cross carved into the upper stone. The cross has expanded terminals and ultimately derives its form from [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] and [[Byzantine]] predecessors of the fifth and sixth centuries. This example has a high quality of finishing which reflects its 'cost' and enhances its symbolic value and social significance. The cross is likely to have 'protected' the corn and the resultant flour from evil, such as fungal [[Rust (fungus)|rust]] or [[ergot]]. Various legends give miraculous power to mill-stones and several have been found which have been re-used in the construction of burial cists or as tomb stones. The association between quern stones and burial may be because they are used in the process of making bread, the staple of life. A broken or disused quern therefore can be seen as symbolic of death.<ref name="Campbell">Ewan Campbell, A cross-marked quern from Dunadd and other evidence for relations between Dunass and Iona, ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland'', vol. 5, no. 117 (1987), pp. 105 - 117.</ref> In [[Clonmacnoise]], near [[Athlone]] in County Offaly in [[Ireland]], a quern stone was found which had been made into a tombstone, having been ornamented and the name Sechnasach, who died in 928 AD, inscribed onto it.<ref name="Bord">Janet and Colin Bord, ''Mysterious Britain'' (Garnstone 1973), {{ISBN|0-85511-180-1}}. P. 62.</ref> A large quern was discovered on the [[Lough Scur]] [[crannog]] in [[Ireland]].{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

== Mythology ==

In the 9th century the Welsh monk [[Nennius]] wrote a history of Britain, the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'', in which he lists the thirteen wonders of Britain, and included in it is the wondrous '[[Mauchline]] Quern' that ground constantly, except on Sundays. It could be heard working underground and the local placename 'Auchenbrain' may celebrate it, translating from the Gaelic as 'field of the quern'.<ref>Watson, William J. (1926). ''The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland''. Edinburgh : William Blackwood & Sons Ltd., p.187</ref>

== See also ==

* {{anl|Jato (grinder)}}
* {{anl|Metate}}
* {{anl|Millstone}}
* {{anl|Mano (archaeology)}}
* {{anl|Sharpening stone}}

== References ==

{{refs}}

== Bibliography ==

* DeBoer, W. (2001) Of dice and women: gambling and exchange in Native North America, In ''Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory'' 8:215-268.
* Gauldie, Enid (1981) The Scottish Miller 1700–1900. Pub. John Donald. {{ISBN|0-85976-067-7}}. 98-99.
* Lease, N., Laurent, R., Blackburn, M. and Fortin, M. (2001) Caractérisation pétrologie d’artefact en basalte provenant de Tell ‘Atij et de Tell Gudeda en Syrie de Nord (3000-2500 av J-C), In ''Serie archéométri''e 1:227-240.
* {{ cite journal |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Muiris |last2=Downey |first2=Liam  |title=Quern Stones|journal=Archaeology Ireland |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=22–25 |date=2006 |jstor=20559139}}
* {{ citation | last1 = Ritti | first1 = Tullia | last2 = Grewe | first2 = Klaus | last3 = Kessener | first3 = Paul | title = A Relief of a Water-powered Stone Saw Mill on a Sarcophagus at Hierapolis and its Implications  | journal = Journal of Roman Archaeology | pages = 138–163 | volume = 20 | year = 2007 | doi = 10.1017/S1047759400005341 | s2cid = 161937987 }}
* Wright, K. (1992). ''Ground stone assemblage variations and subsistence strategies in the Levant, 22,000 to 5,500 bp'', unpublished PhD thesis, Yale University.

==External links==
{{commonscat}}
{{Wikibooks|Scottish Rural Life, History Dictionary}}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080916141517/http://meuliere.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/index.html Atlas of European millstone quarries]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20171213145604/http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/gallerystone.asp Saddle quern, other querns, and stone objects] at the Khirbet Qeiyafa archaeological site in Israel
* Demonstration of quern-stone use in Iran, {{YouTube|lOe13mgZP1w|Using a Millstone : Grinding Wheat with a Stone grinder (2022)}}, November 2022.

{{Prehistoric technology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Archaeological artefact types]]
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[[Category:Chinese inventions]]
[[Category:Food grinding tools]]
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[[Category:Stone objects]]