File:Beehive quern (side view) (FindID 823119).jpg

English: Nearly complete upper half of a Roman beehive quern, probably dating from the 2nd century AD. The stone is very heavy and dome-shaped with a very worn, but probably formerly fluted upper surface. The bottom is flat. Only a small part is missing, but the central perforation as well as the side hole for the wooden handle are still present. Unmalted grain would have been poured into the vertical perforation at the top whilst there would have been a wooden handle in the horizontal hole for turning the quern stone on top of the lower stone. The rotary quern used circular motions to grind the material, meaning both the quern and the handstone were generally circular. The handstone of a rotary quern is much heavier than that of saddle quern and provides the necessary weight for the grinding of unmalted grain into flour. In some cases the grinding surfaces of the stones fit into each other, the upper stone being slightly concave and the lower one convex.

Beehive querns are generally acknowledged as being a native form of rotary quern with a wide date range and a wide variety of forms. Dating is difficult but they seem to have originated in the 2nd century BC (Welfare, A.T., 1985, 'The milling stones' in Bidwell, P.T., The Roman Fort at Vindolanda at Chesterholm, Northumberland, Hist. Build. Monuments Comm. Archaeol. Rep. 1, 154-71) and persisited in use throughout the Roman period.

NB The find comes from the beach and the images and findspot details were kindly emailed to the FLO by the finder; the artefact was not seen by the FLO in person.