Quern, a primitive mill for grinding corn, the stone of which was turned by the hand. It is a contrivance of great antiquity, and so well adapted for the wants of a primitive people, that we find it perpetuated to the present day in remote districts of Ireland and some parts of the Hebrides and Shetlands. The remains of querns have been dug up in Britain, Ireland, and continental Europe wherever the traces of ancient population are found. They occur in the Scottish Earth-houses (q.v.), or cyclopean underground dwellings; in the lake-dwellings of Ireland, Scotland, and Switzerland; and abundantly among the remains of the Roman period in Britain and northern Europe. The most usual form of quern consists of two circular flat stones, the upper one pierced in the centre with a narrow funnel, and revolving on a wooden or metal pin inserted in the lower. The upper stone is occasionally ornamented with various devices; in the Roman period it is sometimes funnel-shaped, with grooves radiating from the centre. In using the quern, the grain was dropped with one hand into the central opening, while with the other the upper stone was revolved by means of a stick, inserted in a small opening near the edge. As early as 1284 an effort was made by the Scottish legislature to supersede the quern by the water-mill, which did not, however, prevent hand-mills from being largely used in Scotland down to the beginning of the 19th century. Probably the oldest British type of quern is that which was fashioned from a section of oak. A less simple variety of the hand-quern, known as the Pot Quern, and also of great antiquity, consists of a circular stone basin, with a hole through which the meal or flour escapes, and a smaller circular stone fitting into it, perforated with an opening through which the grain was thrown into the mill.
See Sir Daniel Wilson's Archæology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (1863), and Sir Arthur Mitchell's The Past in the Present (1880).