Rotary quern and donkey mill
Molino rotatorio de mano y de sangre (mola asinaria)
- Date
- c. 450 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- North-eastern Iberian Peninsula (Els Vilars, Arbeca; Alorda Park, Calafell); the donkey mill later in Italy
- Credited to
- Iberians / Celtiberians; perfected in Italy
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Two superimposed circular millstones where the upper one turns on the lower by a handle or an axle driven by donkeys. It replaces the push-pull quern, multiplying flour output tenfold.
The oldest rotary querns appear in the Iberian Peninsula (5th century BCE) and the Levant; China independently developed its own during the Warring States period.
What it led to
- Commercial bakeries (pistrina) and bread as a mass urban food
- A mechanical model transferred to the watermill and windmill
- Flour production as an industry rather than a domestic female task