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FACETED QUERN-STONE (TYA 619: 467)
Type: A stone polished even on one or more faces.
Use: Grinding of corn.
Site: Raisio, Ihala, Mulli abode
Period: Viking Age Age / Crusade Age / Early Middle Ages.
Dating: 980-1220 A.D.
Size: 70 mm x 83 mm x 81 mm.
Photographer: Antti Huittinen.
Paleobotanical research shows that the inhabitants of Mulli cultivated rye, barley, oats and wheat. The percentage of wheat among the plant remnants was surprisingly large. However, the most important grain was barley . This may be because barley is more suitable than wheat for the short growing season in the north. Rye was also known in the Iron Age. During the medieval period it gained as much, or even more, prominence than barley. Porridge and bread were made of rye.
The grain was flured with a faceted quern-stone, the size of a fist, which was rubbed against a flagstone. Probably at the end of the Iron Age and in the early Middle Ages a more developed handmill came into use. At a later stage, watermills were used for this task. The most famous watermill of Raisio was the mill of Huhko rapid, mentioned for the first time in the 15th century. The windmills possibly arrived in Finland during the medieval period.
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Coordinates: x=101, y=512, 3rd layer.
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