What Is a Cup Stone?

Variously known as cupstones, "anvil stones", "pitted cobbles" and "nutting stones", among other names, these roughly discoidal or amorphous groundstone artifacts are among the most common lithic remains of Native American culture, especially in the Midwest, in Early Archaic contexts.

What is a cup stone used for?

So, regardless of your belief as to the uses of these artifacts that we call Nutting stones, they most likely were used to crack nuts as well as to crush seeds such as smartweed and marsh elder and sunflower.

What are stone cup marks?

A cup-mark is a roughly circular depression pecked and then ground into a stone. These may be seen singly, in lines, or as the basis for further patterns, called cup-and-rings, so as to cover a whole or portion of rock. The depth of cup-marks alone also varies.