Patterns of Quern Production, Acquisition and Deposition: A Corpus of Beehive Querns from Northern Yorkshire and Southern Durham

by D.H. Heslop (2008)

This is the first publication by The Yorkshire Querns Study which was established in 1985 to collect data on querns of all periods.

This study covers beehive querns of the later Iron Age and earlier Romano-British Period and promotes the use of quern evidence as an important resource for the study of settlement, technology, innovation, inter-group relations and religious expression.

Chapters cover transition from saddle to beehive querns, manufacturing, use and re-use of querns, the quern industries of North Yorkshire and South Durham, acquisition and deposition, cereal processing and the arable economy.

 

 

CHAPTER ONE – THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1 Why study querns?
2 Scope
3 Methodology
The Evidence
Recording strategy

CHAPTER TWO – THE PHYSICAL BACKGROUND
1 Topography
2 Geological History
3 Glaciation
4 Exploitation of glacial erratics

CHAPTER THREE – THE TRANSITION FROM SADDLE TO BEEHIVE QUERNS
1 Saddle querns
2 The adoption of new technology
3 The Date of the Introduction

CHAPTER FOUR – MANUFACTURING
1 Introduction
2 Manufacturing methods
Evidence from quarry sites
Evidence from the assemblage
‘Quern-ness’

CHAPTER FIVE – THE BEEHIVE QUERN INDUSTRIES OF NORTH YORKSHIRE AND SOUTH DURHAM
1 Introduction
2 Recording and categorizing quarry products
3 Jurassic sandstone
Channel Sandstone
Moor Grit
Crinoid Grit
4 Coral Measures Sandstone
5 Yoredale Sandstone
6 Millstone Grit
7 Bases of all lithologies
8 Chronological developments of the beehive quern industries

CHAPTER SIX – PRODUCTION, ACQUISITION AND DISTRIBUTION
1 Introduction
2 Special places, special querns
3 The social functioning of the quarry
4 The organisation of production
5 The social relations of distribution
Jurassic sandstone querns
Yoredale sandstone querns
Coal Measures sandstone querns
Millstone Grit querns

CHAPTER SEVEN – USE
1 Completion
2 How querns were used
3 The importance of the rim
4 The spindle
5 Pairing
6 Decoration
7 Variation and conformity of quern use across the region

CHAPTER EIGHT- CEREAL PROCESSING AND THE ARABLE ECONOMY

CHAPTER NINE – RE-USE
1 Association with iron-working
2 Basins

CHAPTER TEN – FRAGMENTATION
Division
Detachment
Interpretation of Division
Interpretation of detachment

CHAPTER ELEVEN – DEPOSITION
1 Introduction
2 On-site deposition
Saddle quern deposition
Beehive querns
3 Off-site deposition
Multiple, complete deposition
Hoarding patters of deposition
The Wharfedale Group
Motivation

CHAPTER TWELVE – CONCULSION

CATALOGUE

Appendix I – Main Catalogue

Appendix II – Upper Stone Data

Appendix II – Lower Stone Data

Appendix IV – Querns from excavations

Appendix V – Querns Project Record Sheet

Bibliography

Index