Stone Pletes

This is a large stone artifact that was used as an anvil stone during the Jōmon Period (16,500~3,000 BCE) for grinding nuts and pigment into powder. This type of stone dish is often discovered in historical ruins of early Jōmon Period settlements. Nuts, stones (pigment), and lumps of soil (pigment) were placed in this dish, and then an elliptical flat stone (suriishi) was used for grinding. Although this dish has an exquisite design, many dishes were made from large natural rocks with irregular shapes.