quern

Stone hand-mill for grinding corn, in use before the invention of the water mill and windmill. Grain introduced between two large flat stones is ground by movement of the upper stone. The saddle-quern, first found in the Neolithic period, requires two people to drive the upper stone backwards and forwards between them. The rotary quern, used from the Early Iron Age, typically consists of two circular stones, the upper stone with a central hole which revolves on a wooden or metal pin set in the lower. Grain is dropped into the opening, and the upper stone rotated using a stick or similar handle inserted into a hole near the edge.

Roman agriculturalists further developed the rotary quern, favouring lava derived from Andernach, western Germany.