Pyramids in Guanajuato
For ages, no one thought much of the pre-hispanic cultures of Guanajuato. Compared to the Mayas or the Olmecs or the Aztecs and the spectacular remains they left, there just didn’t seem to be much in this state about 200 miles north of Mexico City.
Well, if you don’t look, you won’t find. But, after a tentative start in the 1960s, in the last ten or fifteen years, archaeologists have been looking and it turns out that the state is littered with pre-hispanic remains. Most come from the first millennium AD. They are now just beginning to be opened to the public. This is Plazuelas in the south of the state.
And, of course, if you’re interested in the history of food, they have lots of intriguing remains, including these metates (grindstones). Pretty sophisticated they are, too, with legs, and ridges along the sides. Both, as contemporary metate makers tell me, take quite a bit of skill.
Most of the information about the new research and about the sites that you can visit has been pretty hard to get until now. This month, however, the excellent Mexican magazine Arqueología Mexicana, has an issue devoted to Guanajuato. If you can lay your hands on it, do because it has detailed accounts of five sites, lots of overviews, and information about where to go and what to do. This issue is not yet available free on its website but go there anyway. There’s lots to download.
Edit. Here’s perhaps a somewhat clearer photo of the metate where you can make out the legs.
- The January 2007 “Tortilla Riots” in Mexico. Really?
- Migrating with a Millstone around the Neck: Italian-Mexicans
Very interesting Rachel. God knows how many such treasures are buried across the globe. BTW, Indians also use metates which look quite similar to the pic you posted. i haven’t seen any with ridges. it is interesting how cultures so far apart used a similar tool.
It doesn’t look like a saddle quern from this angle and the grinding stone is completely flat. I’m trying to to imagiine how it would be used, maybe for items that were already pulerized to some extent?
Or is it a “display only model” that is purely ceremonial?
Rajagopal, I’m always bugging my Indian friends for information about grinding. So far as I can tell, India and Mexico are the two places that do much wet grinding.
Adam, I’ll try to dig up another photo. I was constrained by the angles of the glass in the museum. It is in fact saddle quern shaped, that is curved both back-front and side-side. I think it was a working model. They’re not very different today except that this is made of a finer-grained stone than I am used to.
The ridges on the sides are fairly common in Mexico. I have one in my kitchen for chocolate that had the same ridges on the sides though not top and bottom. It was made a couple of years ago.
The more I fiddle with querns, the more I think ways of controlling the material being ground were crucial to changing designs.
Rachel,
What info are you trying to find about grinding in India? Maybe i can help.
Thanks so much Rajagopal. You don’t know what you may be letting yourself in for. And I want to comment on your interesting post on the Doha round too.
Off the top of my head I know that wet grinding was used in Korea for mung bean pancakes (poor man’s cake). My mom embraced the blender when we moved to the States.
Wet grinding was also used to make spice pastes for kimchi, but we’re not talking about grains here.
Hmm. Interesting Ji-Young. Was it the saddle quern/simple grindstone that was used?
I don’t remember which kind of grindstone was used for mung bean pancakes, I’ll try to find out.
South Korea has a lot of folk villages or minsuk chons, they’re living outdoor museums that show what village life was like before industrialization.
Many of them are pretty thorough representations. They also include different types of “traditional” kitchens. You get a glimpse of the whole labor intensive process of preparing food.
I think that I’ve been to almost all of them in South Korea, at least twice. Some of these folk villages also show the houses or compounds of the landowners. Very stark contrast to how poor peasants lived. Anyway, you get a sense of the whole socio-economic system.
Pickling, fermenting and drying foods; and processing grains comprised most of the labor for women. And hand washing laundry (sometimes in freezing cold water), sewing clothes, gathering water, boiling water for baths, stoking charcoal fires…
Link to Korean grindstone
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gls1106/1306118629/in/set-72157601828096307/
Scroll down a bit to see a smaller grinding stone
http://alembyc.blogspot.com/2007/04/market-day-at-shijang-with-judy.html
Fascinating photos, Ji-Young. The first is a roller mill the Western cousin of which is used for crushing hard stuff–silver ore, olives, etc. Not the same mill for both, of course!
The second is a hand rotary mill. I love the way it’s set in a bowl to catch the grain. In this form, they are usually used for dry grinding particularly of grains. In wet grinding they tend to gum up and the product does not flow out.
Rachel,
I am happy to help. I am sure i will learn something from you in the process. Look forward to your comments on my Doha round post. I wrote my comment on your most recent post before seeing this comment. Sorry about that.
Ji-Young’s comment is fascinating. The 2nd kind of grindstone she points to is similar to what we use in India even today.
The second Korean grindstone is a photo taken at an existing open air market. People don’t use these in homes or villages anymore, since most homes don’t have the space (or the domestic or peasant labor) and at least in South Korea village life is a thing of the past.
South Korea has a lot of small producers (what might be called “artisanal” for the Slow Food crowd). They’re hardly rich but are still able to support their families by selling at open air markets, outdoor stalls. or even squatting on a sidewalk or rolling a cart around a neighborhood.
And no, small producers or small farms in Korea can’t reach the economies of scale that large, industrialized farms can. But there are more cost-efficient and viable alternatives for small producers to bring products to market, than in the States. It’s a different economic chain.
There’s no Slow Food romance about this kind of life. South Koreans just aren’t far enough away from the good old days to have forgotten them. Sure, it’s an industrialized, high tech city now, but every Korean my age (38) can remember when we all looked like refugees and our mother washed clothes in the Han river.
Ok, so I asked about grinding wet mung beans for pancakes. The type of grindstone used is configured like the hand rotary one in the second photo with the bowl underneath.
I just noticed that in the photo the bowl is made from hard plastic, they used to be made from the same stone as the grinding stones.
I don’t know how the design might vary to resolve the problem of gumming up.
I found a few more photos by googling in Korean (I don’t have a Korean keyboard on my home computer)
A modern Korean food processor/ wet grinder.
http://img.ddm.com/goods/ddm/ddm_03054070825E_s.jpg
Korean site about domestic life for women on Cheju-do island before industrialization. You don’t have to be able to read Korean the photos tell the story of how hard the life was, especially for women. There’s a photo of two women grinding flour on a hand cranked mill.
http://blog.ohmynews.com/rufdml/124524
Grinding stone for herbal medicine
http://forseason.tistory.com/entry/%EC%95%BD-%EB%A7%B7%EB%8F%8C
Back to the good old days field trip with contemporary South Korean children wet grinding what looks like mung beans.
http://omifarm.com/vishome/VIS_bbs/board.php?bo_table=s4_1&wr_id=16&page=
Photo of very old mortar and pestle and grindstones. The Korean fonts are scramble on my computer so I can’t read a thing to tell you about the time period they were made
http://kid.knrda.go.kr/html/cyber/yumul/banga-2.htm
Grindstones are also used for extracting oil from nuts, seeds, and apricot kernels.
Rajagopal, Again, thanks for the comments. Ji-Young, I’m going to put these photos up as a post. I’d like everyone to be able to see them. I’m editing your comments just enough to make a coherent narrative.
Hello, Guanajuato was declared UNESCO World Heritage long years ago. What I find amazing is that the city grew atop of the mud, that´s why doors and windows could be found facing streets inside the ground. The growth pattern is like a fractal. That´s also interesting, dwellings were left underground and dead were left high on the ground….
Regards,
Myriam M.
I agree, Guanajuato’s a fascinating town for so many reasons. It never fitted the Spanish colonial mold.
I’m happy.I found my lineage.What I am.I have some Spanish features,but a lot of me is something else.I feel like I know WHO I am now.
Heading N through Leon I always see a ‘mountain’ on the right or East that looks to me as if it ‘could possibly be a pyramid ‘. It makes me wonder. It has the exact shape. It would not surprise me if it were a pyramid not yet discovered.
Absolutely could be. Would love to know.