Ancient Stone Tool: How was it used?

Stones are not common in southern Mesopotamia. They were brought in from far away because they are useful as tools and building materials. But they are also heavy, so large stones are particularly rare. We find small and medium sized stone tools fairly often, however, and this one is particularly interesting because of the smooth divot on one side.

We are working outside the city walls and finding many tools and raw materials as well as a few finished or near-finished items. It looks like people out here were doing a lot of crafting, and this tool is one of the pieces of evidence we found this season. But what kind of tool was it and just how was it used?

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I spent October and November 2022 in Iraq excavating alongside Iraqi and German archaeologists at the ancient city of Ur. During that time I took a lot of footage of our trenches and some of the artifacts we uncovered. After returning to the States and completing the accounts of the field season, I began editing the videos and releasing them.

Thanks to the Penn Museum, the University of Pennsylvania Research Fund, and Ludwig Maximilian University for financing the excavations, and of course thanks to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and the Iraqi Ministry of Culture for working with us to make this season a success.