Mano and Metate

Mano and Metate

Artifacts

This photo shows a mano and metate from a site in Orange County in the northern Piedmont. During the Middle Woodland period, people in Virginia began to practice plant cultivation and small-scale agriculture. This was one factor that led them to begin living permanently or semi-permanently in village hamlets, a process called sedentism. By the Late Woodland period, Virginia Indians were agriculturalists who cultivated nuts, grains, beans, and squash. Grains such as corn were ground into flour using a mano held in the hand and a metate as a grinding surface. Archaeologists know that a site’s occupants practiced agriculture and lived in a permanent settlement when they find these types of artifacts, because manos and metates are heavy and wouldn’t have been easily transportable from place to place.

Bill Speiden

500 B.C.E. - 1600 C.E.

.JPG, 1796 × 1196

Image

Orange County

Photograph

4 x 6 "