Wooden Mortar and Pestle

A wooden mortar and pestle was an old-fashioned

milling tool that was pounded. A sturdy bowl, typically
constructed of stone, ceramic, or wood, serves as the
mortar. The mortar's substance is frequently used to
create the pestle, a spherical grinding club. The mortar
and pestle were the first methods for grinding grain that
were known, together with the saddle quern (a round
stone rolled or rubbed on a flat stone bed). The grain was
placed in a shallow hole in a stone, the mortar, and
beaten with a rod of stone, the pestle. Smaller, more
refined variations of the mortar and pestle are still used
in chemical laboratories, pharmacies, and kitchens to
make pastes and other finely crushed food ingredients.
Mortars and pestles were commonplace in every
pharmacy and apothecary. The single-piece wood pestle
is used to smash and pound medicinal herbs and plants
as well as crush up hard substances for use in medical
procedures. The mortar is a bowl that is used to pound
against; in this instance, it appears to have been crafted
from a tree branch. Today, kitchens are more likely to
include mortars and pestles than pharmacies.