Once the project’s groundstone catalogue passed the 365 artifact mark, the team’s attention turned to the obvious next stage of work: assigning each team member (or anyway those whose birthdays I know from their personnel forms) a personal “spirit” groundstone based on which day of the year they were born.
The results, of the utmost scientific interest!, are as follows:
The most common artifact in the catalogue, by a wide margin is “andesite grinding slab”. A grinding slab is the lower, stationary part of grinding toolkits, working as a pair with a handheld tool for pulverizing a variety of substances, such as grains, acorns, spices, minerals, pigments etc., or to produce other artefacts. Andesite is a volcanic stone of intermediate silica content with plagioclase crystals. It does not occur naturally in the Porto Rafti area, but was probably sourced relatively close by in the Saronic gulf. Aegean andesite ranges in color from light or dark grey to pleasantly pink.
The official BEARS groundstone mascot, “andesite grinding slab” accurately captures the normative, sturdy, and utterly reliable characters it represents: Izzy Brewer, Miriam Clinton, Grace Erny, Rob Stephan, Joey Frankl, Elliott Fuller, Matthias Kalisch, and Dom Pollard.
Shannon Dunn and Taylor Stark are both “metamorphic hammerstones”. A hammer stone is a type of active percussion tool, any handheld tool used with strokes to remove material from another surface. They are further categorized based on the force of the stroke and morphology of their use faces. Metamorphic stones are local to east Attica.
Being a metamorphic hammer stone seems “very metal”.
Phil Sapirstein is a “pink andesite pestle”. Pestles are handheld tools of a relatively elongated shape used with one or both ends for pounding, grinding and mixing a variety of substances, often used in conjunction with mortars.
This pestle suits The King of the Roof Tiles, with his fashionable art historian’s demeanor and penchant for shades of lavender. Would be a good tool for smashing up tiles.
Braden Cordivari is a “figure-of-eight shaped possible weight”, a very useful tool for the metallurgist in training.
Kat Apokatanidis is a “multifunctional andesite pounder used for grinding on one side”. No comment!
Maeve McHugh, known for dwelling in only the most exclusive gated mansions and 5-star resort hotels while visiting Porto Rafti, has a fittingly prestigious groundstone doppelgänger: “gneiss foot from a tripod mortar”.
Tripod mortars are a distinct tool type where the body rests on three feet and a narrow spout might be present on the rim. They date mostly to the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean and are thought to have been used in both utilitarian and ritual contexts. They are considered prestige items, because a great deal of extra effort was required to manufacture the feet and spout.
NICE.
Finally, Melanie Godsey and Sarah Murray are unmodified raw materials that are volcanic – so brought to the survey area from elsewhere – but that don’t have any apparent usewear. Murray is a mere pebble, Godsey a hulking andesite boulder. These two have limitless potential and will never be a tool for “the man”.
