Wampanoag Stone Pestle

For thousands of years, Wampanoag women used wooden and stone mortars and pestles to pound corn into flour for preparing boiled bread, nasaump, and other traditional dishes. While most corn was allowed to fully mature and dry on the cob, some corn was picked and eaten green in late August or early September. This early ripe corn is called “green corn” or “corn in the milk stage” due to the kernels’ milky juice. During the green corn harvest, Wampanoag and other Native people observe important rituals to give thanks to the Creator and celebrate with feasting and dancing. Dried kernels were often stored in large woven bags and ground for flour and nasampe when needed. Dried corn could also be parched over a fire and pounded into nokehig, a fine corn flour used for thickening soups and often carried by travelers and easily rehydrated as a quick, energy-rich meal.

Compare this object to an English mortar and pestle.

• Who used these tools? Are your answers the same for both English and Wampanoag communities?
  
• What materials are used to make these tools? Are they the same or different?
  
• What would it be like to grind corn for hours every day? How might it affect your body over time?
  
• Why is it important to consider the contributions women and children made to the success of Plymouth Colony and Patuxet?
  
• How do you help your family at home? Compare what you do with English and Wampanoag children in the 1600s. What do you all have in common?
  

• Explore more Wampanoag food preparation and cooking tools in Plimoth Patuxet's digital exhibit, "Echoes of the Ancestors."
• What's for Dinner? Learn more about diet in the 1600s.
• Watch "The Wampanoag Way"