Mortar And Metate, What’s The Difference?

Here we have 2 different artifacts with similar appearances and functions. Can you tell the difference? I briefly touched on the Metate and its use before, but I will retouch on it in this post. Similarities: Like the Metate, Mortars are food-prep tools made of stone with an inner-basin used to process different plant material …

Ancient Corn

If you’ve ever visited ancient ruins, you may have encountered something like this. As remarkable as it is, corn and cornhusks, centuries old, just like these, can still be found today. Evidence suggest many natives were protein-starved, and corn may have been the staple in the diet of many tribes. When the Spanish came into …

The Metate and Mano, Ancient Food-prep tools

To some people this might look like nothing, but in actuality, this is what’s known as a “Metate,” a stone tool used by native peoples going back thousands of years to prepare plant foods. Metates were meant to be used in conjunction with a Mano (grinding stone), a small rounded rock, similar to what you …