Photo -- See Caption Below


Grinding Tools. Mano and Metate
Ancestral Pueblo
Pueblo III - Pueblo IV. AD 1200 - 1550
All the stone found in Frijoles Canyon is tuff, a compacted volcanic ash from the Jemez Volcano. This metate or bowl is made of sandstone. That means it would have had to be brought from elsewhere. It was probably carried by someone on foot, as wheels or horses were not present at that time. A small mano and metate like these may have been used for grinding wild plant seeds for food or pigments for paint. In the Bandelier area, metates used to grind dried corn were generally larger and flatter.
Sandstone. L 21.5, W 14.6, H 7.5 cm [H 8 ½, W 5 ¾, H 3 inches]
Bandelier National Monument, BAND 1482