Universitat de Lleida. Departament d'Història. Secció d'Arqueologia, Prehistòria i Història Antiga
Abstract
Anderson, T.J., Alonso, N. (eds), Tilting at Mills: The Archaeology and Geology of Mills and Milling. Revista d’Arqueologia de Ponent. Número Extra 4, 2019. ISBN: 9788491440291Groups of unfinished quern and millstones (roughouts) have been recovered in Western
Europe in the sea, in rivers and along ancient roads. They have also been unearthed during
archaeological excavations of cities and rural sites. These different assemblages share similarities:
the grinding surfaces are not finished, the eyes are rarely pierced and the handle holes are
not cut. These groups evidence a segmentation of the operational sequence of production in
Antiquity, from block extraction to their sale, with the transport of unfinished products and
final shaping taking place in workshops beyond the quarry near their place of use. This model
differs from that in the Middle Ages where millstones were transported in a finished form
