This nutting stone was recovered from the Fanning site in Doniphan County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1981. Sometimes named anvil stones, cupstones, or pitted stones, artifacts such as this one are thought to hold a nut in place while the nutshell is cracked. However, as the dark red stain on the stones surface shows, this nutting stone was also used to crush a pigment such as hematite, a relatively soft and fine-grained mineral form of iron oxide. The Fanning site was a Late Ceramic to early Contact Period Kansa village.
