a mexican implement, similar to a mortar

I remember seeing a mano and metate sitting in an automatic dishwasher. A vision of the old and new that will never leave me.

Yes, they were black, apparently igneous rocks, one roughly cylindrical, about 40 cm long and maybe 10 in diameter and the other a slab, about a meter long by 50 cm wide with a depression about 5 cm deep. I didn't see any feet, but I would suppose they would have to have been there. I know the word metate from Anthro classes. I know the things as Indian, but I don't know them as Indian.