Models of Grinding Stone Manufacture, Use, and Discard from Tigrai, Ethiopia: Opportunities for Cultural Comparisons and Implications for Usewear Analysis

ABSTRACT

Grinding stones are a worldwide technology, instrumental in processing food as far back as the African Middle Stone Age. Research interest in grinding stones, and the usewear on their surfaces, has grown in the last few decades. Models of grinding stone manufacture, use, and discard provide a reference for cross-cultural comparisons of practices and guide methodologies in planning usewear analysis based on kinetics. In Ethiopia, traditional knowledge of grinding stones is still accessible, and grinding stones remain in use. The models developed through interviews with, and observations of, local practitioners show processes and behaviors but also decisions made at various stages. Particular behaviors and decisions have impacts on tool wear.

KEYWORDS:

• Grinding stones
• models
• kinetics
• kinematics
• usewear

Acknowledgments

It is with heartfelt thanks we recognize our consultants from Gulo Makeda who shared their traditional knowledge. We are also thankful to Jennie Adams and Bill Gillespie for joining us in the field and providing guidance and photographic services. We are also grateful to the reviewers for their thoughtful input into our final version of this article. We thank the Ethiopian Heritage Authority (EHA) and the Tigrai Culture and Tourism Bureau (TCTB) for permission to undertake this study. And finally, we could not have completed this research without the funding from Social Sciences SSRHC Standard Research Grant No. 410-2011-1646, Doctoral Research Grant No.752-2018-2654, and Insight Grant Nos. 435-2014-0182 and 435-2018-0445.

Notes

1 Notes on flow chart symbols: ovals or pill shapes represent starting and ending points, a circle (or flattened circle) with a letter “A” is a connector to the next steps, a diamond represents a decision, a square/rectangle represents process—an action or task, a parallelogram contains additional information (input), and an arrow represents the direction of flow (sometimes with yes/no decisions) and relationships between shapes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laurie A. Nixon-Darcus

Laurie Nixon-Darcus (Ph.D. 2022, Simon Fraser University) holds a lecturer position with Simon Fraser University and conducts research on grinding stones in Tigrai, Ethiopia. Her research focuses on traditional knowledge, cultural contexts of grinding stone traditions, tribology, and usewear studies.

A. Catherine D’Andrea

A. Catherine D'Andrea (Ph.D. 1992, University of Toronto) is Professor of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Since 2003, she has been the director of the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project. Her research focuses on early African agriculture, paleoethnobotany, traditional agricultural knowledge, and early complex societies in the Horn of Africa.

Yemane Meresa

Yemane Meresa (M.A. 2017, Addis Ababa University) is a professor in the department of Archaeology and Heritage Management at Aksum University (Ethiopia). He focuses on the socio-cultural heritage of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, especially on the archaeology of the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite Periods.