A hard stone or lava device for grinding corn and grain into flour, and used from the Mesolithic onwards The saddle quern – or saucer quern – was the earliest and consisted of a concave or saddle-shaped stone on which the grain was crushed by the to-and-fro motion of an upper stone The heavier rotary quern – or beehive quern – was used from 150 BC onwards and had a central spindle in which the upper stone was rotated on the lower stone by means of a handle
A simple device consisting of two rough stones between which grain could be ground, either by rubbing or rotating the upper stone against the lower Fine examples of querns can be seen in situ at Chysauster ancient settlement in Cornwall