Old Photograph Islander Quern Stone Shetland Islands Scotland

Old photograph of an islander grinding using a quern stone outside her cottage on the Shetland Islands, Scotland. Quern-stones are stone tools for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials. They were used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, while the upper mobile stone is called a handstone. They were first used in the Neolithic to grind cereals into flour for making bread.



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