Nutting Stone

Nutting Stone

Artifacts

This unusually shaped nutting stone was found at a site in Orange County in the northern Piedmont. The surface of the stone was ground out to form many small depressions, which would hold nuts securely while being cracked by another stone from above. Although Virginia Indians likely gathered wild fruits and nuts since the Paleoindian period, they did not produce tools like this one until the Middle Woodland period, when they became semi-sedentary. Nutting and grinding stones are heavy and are more suited to a permanent village lifestyle, instead of a highly mobile lifestyle.

Bill Speiden

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

.JPG, 1786 × 1193

Image

Orange County

Photograph

4 x 6 "