Need honest option on this. Real or fake.

[morrich]

I bought this pc about six years ago from a guy who has a shop here in town. I must admit that I was caught up in the fact that it was for sale and fairly cheap. The man said it came from the southwest part of the u.s. does anyone know what to think of this? It cost me 75.00 dollars. I really think now looking back on this purchase that it is probably fake. I am open to suggestions everyone. This is one of two I bought.

[jaker]

im gonna have to say its a modern piece even though i dont really know what im looking at cause the picture is upside down.

[kenwhite]

I've no opinion, but an observation: my last trip to Cabot San Lucas, I saw very similar, obviously modern pieces for sale in the tourist shops.

[chase]

Chris, I turned your pic's around so I did not have to stand on my head to see them. :whistle:  :sick:  :silly:
I cant tell if its real or fake, but if its real that was a great buy.

[CliffJ]

It is a three-legged Mexican metate. It could be "antique" or "vintage", or made last year for sale, as they have been used over a long period south of the border.

[painshill]

CliffJ wrote:

It is a three-legged Mexican metate. It could be "antique" or "vintage", or made last year for sale, as they have been used over a long period south of the border.

  Yep... and in that shape most usually for grinding corn to make tortillas and such. They should be traditionally made from vesicular basalt (very early ones may be coarse ceramic). The material looks good and it has clearly seen some use but - as Cliff says - it could be any age really. The modern tourist pieces are frequently cast from a mixture of cement powder and crushed basaltic rock. We can at least say it isn't that kind of inferior modern copy.

[clovisoid]

It's obviously seen some significant use, the legs are pecked vs sawn, and it's pretty irregular vs 19th century and later mass produced versions.  I'd guess it's older, or it could be something that a villager made and used.
In some places metates were used for grinding corn, but in Mexico and Central America more often than not, they were used for mixing dough.  These with no sides were also used extensively for grinding dried peppers, grinding up dried meat (pachola), mixing the stuff for mole, etc.  The mortar and pestle that we often see (molcajete) was often used for cooking vs grinding hard, dried things.
The main population explosion in Mesoamerica came with the introduction of nixtamalization, or boiling corn with lime/soda ash.  It really ramps up the vitamins, and when served with beans provides more than enough vitamins and proteins to survive. (Mix in tomatoes, squash, and wild fruits and you have a perfectly balanced diet.)  The corn was boiled and soaked to turn it to hominy.  It was sometimes dried and saved, but was most often just pounded while soft in a big mortar to make the dough. (Or eaten as soup, drank as atole, cooked as grits, etc.  For tortillas, small batches of dough were processed smooth on the metate and then slapped out by hand.

[punisher]

:evil:  Apple, Mac, Toshiba??  That's an old PC  :rolf:  :rolf:  :rolf:  :rolf:  :rolf:
Sorry, had to.
night all