A tool that most are familiar with when discussing Native artifacts are the grinding stones. A common image brought to mind is a large stone with a gentle bowl sloped in the center. While the most prevalent understanding is to grind food such as acorns, corn, and other grains into a type of flour; they were also used to mash medicinal plants or paint materials.
But what if your area didn’t have an easy supply of stone, such as for the Croatoan Nation on the Outer Banks? Trading was an option, but large stone tools can be difficult to transport great distances. The example here is of a wooden grinding tool made from a knot of a tree. The black markings in the center of the bowl are burn marks. Proper heat treating of wood can make wood more resilient as well as less appealing to insects for food. Have you used a mortar and pestle before? What do you grind in yours?