Mano (stone)

A mano (Spanish for hand) is a ground stone tool used with a metate to process or grind food by hand.[1] It is also known by the Nahuatl term metlapil.[2]

Native American manos from Arizona.

History

Manos were used in prehistoric times to process wild seeds, nuts and other food, generally used with greater frequency in the Archaic period, when people became more reliant upon local wild plant food for their diet. Later, manos and metates were used to process cultivated maize.[3]

In its early use in the American Southwest, the mano and metate were used to grind wild plants. The mano began as a one-handed tool and once cultivation of maize became more prevalent, the mano became a larger, two-handed tool that more efficiently ground food against an evolved basin or trough metate.[4]

Besides food, manos and metates were used to separate and pulverize clay from earthen debris and stones. The resulting clay was used for pottery-making.[5]

Grinding process
Metate and mano.

A mano, a smooth hand-held stone, is used against a metate, typically a large stone with a depression or bowl. The movement of the mano against the metate consists of a circular, rocking or chopping grinding motion using one or both hands.[6]

Ancient Pueblo People often set up work rooms, called mealing rooms, that were established with sets of manos and metates for mass grinding efforts.[7]

gollark: Thoughts? Is this *too* cheaty?
gollark: Given that our slag production makes *about* one per ten seconds (probably less), and 12.8 units of 5 coal would be needed for 1 diamond, we could get one diamond every two minutes or so.
gollark: I figured out a terrible, terrible (in the sense of being slightly cheaty) way to get diamonds:1. hook up slag production to thermal centrifuge (there's a 1 slag -> tiny gold dust + 5 coal dust recipe)2. feed coal to compactor (makes compressed coal balls; without this it would need flint, but that's easy too)3. compress the coal ball into a ... compressed coal ball4. compress the compressed coal balls into a coal chunk (usually this would require obsidian, iron or bricks, but the compactor skips that too - obsidian is automateable easily but with large power input, though)5. compress coal chunk into diamond
gollark: Oh, this is really cool, Random PSIDeas has a thing which allows me to move my camera position.
gollark: ... right, the dirt, silly me.

See also

References
  1. Mano. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
  2. Telléz, Lesley (July 16, 2010). "Lessons in back-breaking Mesoamerican cooking: How to season a metate". The Mija Chronicles. Archived from the original on November 27, 2011.
  3. Gibbon, Guy E.; Ames, Kenneth M. (1998) Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia. pp. 107, 166. ISBN 0-8153-0725-X.
  4. Plog, Stephen. (1997). Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 68-70. ISBN 0-500-02116-3.
  5. Plog, Stephen. (1997). Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 66. ISBN 0-500-02116-3.
  6. Sutteon, Mark Q.; Arkush, Brooke S. (2001). Archaeological Laboratory Methods: An Introduction.] Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. p. 72-75. ISBN 0-7872-8153-0.
  7. Plog, Stephen. (1997). Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 80. ISBN 0-500-02116-3.

Further reading
  • Caple, Chris. Objects: Reluctant Witnesses to the Past
  • Morris, Donald H. (Summer 1990). "Changes in Groundstone following the introduction of maize into the American Southwest." Journal of Anthropological Research. 46(2).
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