Volcanic pumice stone carved to yield a handle and flat smoothing or beating surface

Volcanic pumice stone carved to yield a handle and flat smoothing or beating surface

This bark beater would have been used to manufacture paper. Bark was soaked overnight and then the finer inner fibrous sheets were separated from the thicker outer bark layers. Bark beaters were used to pound those inner layers into flatter, more uniform paper.

Pumice may have also been used to smooth pottery/other clay materials.

Early bark beaters date to cultural contexts of the 6th century
Specific cultural affiliations unknown

Collected in 1912 in Azcapotzalco, Mexico by William Niven; donated to Wesleyan University Museum of Natural History in 1912 by William Arnold Shanklin

Wesleyan University Archaeology and Anthropology Collections (WUAAC)

Stone tool, 3 x 2 x 2 inches (L x W x H)

beaters

1912.2311.1

Pre-Columbian Mexico