Product Description
This dish and top grinder would have been used to grind the sporocarp of the Nardoo fern
(Marsilea drummondii), a plant with widespread distribution throughout the Australian
mainland. The sporocarps were ground to a fine powder and mixed with water to make
edible dough which was then baked. Nardoo was an important Aboriginal food scource.
Stone items such as these were valued but too heavy to carry from one area to the next
when the nomadic group would move to the next food and water source. The top grinder
was placed in a safe spot with the inverted bottom plate placed over it thereby protecting
both items for the next time they would return.
