Stone Age to Iron Age 3: quern stones

What have the archaeologists discovered?

At Folkestone’s East Cliff, archaeologists discovered lots of rotary quern stones. Some are complete and some are broken.

Rotary querns were used in the Iron Age, Roman and medieval periods for grinding grain to make flour for bread.

This was back-breaking work, that would have been done mainly by women and children.

Archaeologists call them rotary querns because they rotate when they are used.

They were made from the local Greensand stone.

These querns are over 2000 years old, from the Iron Age. They are evidence that quern stones were being made and traded from here.

Image copyright: Canterbury Archaeological Trust

Watch this short film to see how a quern stone works

Fascinating fact
When two quern stones rub against each other, little bits break off. That means flour ground by quern stones contains pieces of gritty stone.

Eating bread made from flour with stone in wears down your teeth. So if you were lucky enough to reach old age, your teeth would be little more than stumps!

Quern stones reused to make a Roman drain

Some old and broken quern stones. What have they been used for?