File:Pestle (base) (FindID 488862).jpg

English: Rough greenstone cobble, ovate in plan, and trapezoidal in profile and semi-circular in section. The base has been ground to a smooth flat surface and there is a fracture running through the middle of the cobble, and one edge has a spur projecting beyone the base, suggesting a section has broken off, perhaps during use. Several flakes have been removed from one side, and the opposite side has been ground smooth due to fine pestle use. Such pieces do turn up on domestic sites but not in any quantity compared to mullers and rubbers. On these objects the waterworn cobble surfaces are all fresh and unweathered, appropriate for selection from a beach during the Neolithic. The beach selection would ensure hard enduring pieces. It is quite possible that the wear on these objects has been caused by grinding pieces in the axe manufacture process (Henrietta Quinnell, Clodgy Moor stonework, forthcoming).

Examples of pestles have been found on Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Cornwall, such as the Beaker site at Boscaswell, St Just, illustrated in Jones & Quinnell (2008) on page 47, Fig.11, No.S2 and the Later Bronze Age site at Callestick, Perranzabuloe, illustrated in Jones (2002) on page 32, Fig.13, No.87.