In 1996-1997 a sandstone quarry and ironworks were investigated in Châbles, to the east of Lake Neuchâtel, at the locality Les Saux. The complex was active from the second half of the first until the third century. In the quarry blocks were extracted to be used as building material, and cylinders that were turned into hand-held grain mills. Slag and metal waste testified to the activity of a blacksmith. He produced a wide range of objects, not just products to be used by the quarry workers. Nearby buildings seem to have been the houses of the workers.
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The quarry of millstones seen from above. Photo: Anderson et al. 1999, fig. 3.
Left: schematic representation of a millstone. Right: reconstruction of the use of a millstone. Anderson et al. 1999, 184 and 2001, 6.
1: rotating upper part (catillus); 2: handle; 3: rim; 4: hole for the grain and wooden plug; 5: fixed lower part (meta); 6: spindle.
Literature
Anderson et al. 1999; Anderson et al. 2001; Flutsch et al. 2002, 373.
[22-Feb-2024]
