The Spassk-Dalny Museum houses a mortar dating back to the Jurchen Empire.

A mortar is one of the oldest household tools known to humans since ancient times. For example, archaeologists have discovered mortars in Neolithic burials dating back seven to eight thousand years.

Mortars were used for grinding or crushing grain and other products. The Russian name for mortar (stupa) comes from the word “to step, ” that is, “to move the foot from place to place.”

Mortars were made of various materials: hard stone, metal, wood, and ceramics.

Grinding was done using a pestle, which was carved from a single piece of wood. The length of the pestle could reach up to a meter, and its working part could be iron-clad or have a cast iron tip to protect it from cracking and to improve its crushing ability. The size and shape of the pestle’s tip could be different.

There were pestles with rounded or flat working surfaces. A rounded pestle allowed for pounding and grinding, while a flat one was suitable only for pounding relatively soft products. To facilitate pounding, the mortar was filled with no more than five percent of its volume.

There were also two ways of processing the product using a mortar: pounding and grinding. During pounding, the product was subjected to repeated pressing or striking. Grinding was a combination of constant pressure of the pestle with circular movements on the mortar. For example, to finely crush black pepper, it was first pounded and then ground.

The process of preparing grain for cooking was very labor-intensive. First, the grains were cleaned of husks and hard shells using a mortar and pestle. When millet or buckwheat had shed 95 percent of the husk, the grains were transferred into a bucket and taken outside. A cloth was spread on the ground, and the grain was winnowed on it in the wind to remove the husks. The clean grain was collected in a vessel, rinsed with water, and then could be boiled. Grains were pounded only as much as needed for making porridge, as pounded grains could turn rancid during prolonged storage.

Mortars were widespread in Jurchen settlements. For example, during excavations of the Shaiginsky settlement, one of the largest in Primorye, mortars were found in almost every dwelling.