Millstone

Abstract: Millstones were widely traded in the Roman world and since the place of origin of the stone can usually be identified, a study of their distribution throws some light on trading patterns. In this paper five groups of petrologically similar millstones are briefly considered, deriving from Orvieto, Sardinia, the west Mediterranean, Volvic (Auverne) and the Eifel region of Germany.

Abstract: 1. Introduction: Keeping our Noses to the Grinding Stone Yorke M. Rowan and Jennie R. Ebeling Part I: Production and Exchange 2. Geological Constraints on Ground Stone Production and Consumption in the Southern Levant Joan S. Schneider (University of California, Riverside) and Philip C. LaPorta (La Porta & Associates) 3. Discovery of a Medieval Islamic Industry for Steatite Cooking Vessels in Egypt's Eastern Desert James A. Harrell and V. Max Brown (The University of Toledo) 4. Beyond the Moh Scale: Raw Material Choice and the Production of Stone Vases in a Late Minoan Context Tristan Carter (Stanford University) 5. Stones on Stone: Assessing the Use of Handstones as Tools to Process Stone Artifacts at PPNB Ba'ja in Southern Jordan Philipp M. Rassmann (University of Washington) 6. A Chip Off the Old Millstone: Grinding Stone Production and Distribution in the Early Bronze Age of the Negev Yael Abadi and Steven A. Rosen (Ben-Gurion University) 7. The Exchange of Stone Tools and Vessels During the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant Ianir Milevski (Israel Antiquities Authority) 8. Crafts, Production and the Organization of Ground Stone Technologies Katherine Wright (University College London) 9. Maize-Grinding Tools in Prehispanic Central Mexico. Martin Biskowski (California State University, Sacramento) Part II: Use, Reuse and Curation: Site Formation Processes and Functional Interpretations 10. Grinding Stones and Seeds of Change: Starch and Phytoliths as Evidence of Plant Food Processing Richard Fullagar, Judith Field and Lisa Kealhofer (The University of Sydney) 11. Identifying Lightly Used Polishing Stones: Experiments and Implications Martha Trenna Valado (University of Arizona) 12. Wear Patterns on Ground Stone Implements from Tel Yin'am. Harold Liebowitz (University of Texas at Austin) 13. Variation in the Organization of Prehistoric Milling Technology of the Northern Mojave Desert, North America. Mark E. Basgall (California State University, Sacramento) 14. Beyond the Broken Jenny L. Adams (Desert Archaeology, Tucson) 15. Ground Stone Tools, Refuse Structure, and the Life Histories of Residential Buildings at Ayn Ab Nukhayla, Southern Jordan. Seiji Kadowaki (University of Toronto) 16. The Changing Face of Ground Stone Studies in the American Great Basin. Renee Corona Kolvet (Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas) Part III: Symbols of Luxury and Ritual Equipment 17. Basalt Bowls in Early Bronze IA Shaft Tombs at Bab edh-Dhra': Placement, Production and Symbol R. Thomas Schaub (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) 18. Stone Alabastra in Western Anatolia C.H. Roosevelt (Boston University) 19. Carving Luxury: Late Classic White Stone Vase Traditions in Mesoamerica Christina Luke (Boston University) 20. Stone Vessel Production Caves on the Eastern Slope of Mount Scopus, Jerusalem David Amit, Jon Seligman and Irena Zilberbod (Israel Antiquities Authority) 21. Beyond Provenance Analysis: The Movement of Basaltic Artefacts Through a Social Landscape Graham Rutter and Graham Philip (University of Durham) Part IV: New Insights from Old Stones New Insights from Old Stones: A Survey of Grinding Stones Studies Jane Peterson (Marquette University)

Abstract: The term ‘Millstone Grit’ is applied to a series of beds which attain a thickness of 5500 feet in Lancashire, consisting of conglomerates, grits, sandstones, and shales with occasional thin impure limestones and beds of chert. It occupies a position in the geological sequence between the Yoredale or Pendleside Group and the Coal Measures. For the purposes of this investigation the base of the Millstone Grit in West and North-West Yorkshire has been taken at the base of the Ingleborough Grit, following the precedent of the Geological Survey as pointed out in the Memoir on the Ingleborough District, 1890, pp. 74–75. Since this is a coarse grit, easily traceable on account of its lithological characters and the bold escarpments to which it gives rise, it forms a good datum-line. The top of the series has been taken at the top of the Hough liock, where it can be seen to be overlain by the Lower Coal Measures, as at Whitehall Quarries, Horsforth, near Leeds. However, as no questions of correlation are involved in this work, the exact delimitations of the various beds is a matter of minor importance. The Millstone Grit Series covers an area in Yorkshire alone of no less than 840 square miles, and is important physiographically, as it forms the capping of most of the hills of the Pennine Chain, such as Mickle Fell. Whernsicle, Ingleborough, Penygent, etc., and by its presence there preserves the more easily denuded strata below from a more rapid destruction. Economically the