A traditional stone tool consisting of a flat grinding stone (metate) used with a hand-held stone (mano) for grinding grain or seeds.
From Spanish 'batán' and ultimately from Nahuatl or other Mesoamerican indigenous languages; the word traveled to Spanish colonial territories and refers to traditional grinding equipment.
The batan is one of humanity's oldest technologies—designs from 10,000+ years ago are nearly identical to batanes used today, proving that some solutions are so perfect they need no improvement.
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