Today’s blog deals with a small clay female figurine. She is using a large flat stone or metate and a smaller hand-held stone or mano to grind her maize.
Usually metates are made out of volcanic rock, basalt or andesite.
Metates can also be the upper face of a large stone which has been pock marked with “dents” where usually acorns were ground.
At one point, I lived in a very rural area that had some large sandstone boulders with metates holes ground into the stone.
With the abundance of live oak trees in that area, it definitely made sense that these were used to make acorn meal.
Front View of Female Using a Metate
This clay figurine was purchased by Farmhouse Magic Blog on a trip to the ancient ruins of Tulum, Mexico.
The vendor sold his wares on a blanket near a roadway.
This art work looks rather Mayan in composition.
It actually spoke to me of the hard labor ancient civilizations went through to survive.
Metates with manos are used to process grains and seeds.
Grinding maize represent a bygone era of labor-intensive food preparation.
It is still possible to purchase a metate for everyday cooking.
Side View of Woman Using a Metate
Metates can also be used to grind spices, cocoa, dried chilies and mash fresh fruit such as pineapples and avocados.
So is my artistic find a rare piece of ancient Mayan history or just a clay figurine for sale to tourists?
Sorry to say, there were rows and rows of the same figurine on that blanket, however, I still love this unique clay sculpture.