Mortar (bowl)

Pestle and Mortar

A simple kitchen pestle and mortar
Other names	Mortar grinding machine
Uses	Grinding Mixing
Related items	Mill

A pestle and mortar is a kitchen device used since ancient times to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder. The mortar (/ˈmɔːrtər/) is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone. The pestle (/ˈpɛsəl/) is a heavy and blunt club-shaped object, the end of which is used for crushing and grinding. The substance to be ground is placed in the mortar and ground, crushed or mixed using a pestle.

Mortars and pestles have been used in cooking up to the present day; they are frequently also associated with the profession of pharmacy due to their historical use in preparing medicines. They can also be used in masonry and in other types of construction.

Scientists have found ancient mortars and pestles that date back to approximately 35,000 B.C.

The English word mortar derives from classical Latin mortarium, meaning, among several other usages, "receptacle for pounding" and "product of grinding or pounding". The classical Latin pistillum, meaning "pounder", led to English pestle.

The Roman poet Juvenal applied both mortarium and pistillum to articles used in the preparation of drugs, reflecting the early use of the mortar and pestle as a symbol of a pharmacist or apothecary.

The antiquity of these tools is well documented in early writing, such as the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus of ~1550 BCE (the oldest preserved piece of medical literature) and the Old Testament (Numbers 11:8 and Proverbs 27:22).

Mortars and pestles were traditionally used in pharmacies to crush various ingredients prior to preparing an extemporaneous prescription. The mortar and pestle, with the Rod of Asclepius, the Orange Cross, and others, is one of the most pervasive symbols of pharmacology, along with the show globe.