11. In its early use in the American Southwest, the mano and metate were used to grind wild plants. 12. Another type of metate , called a grinding slab, may also be found among boulder or exposed bedrock outcroppings. 13. This particular form of metate seems to have been influenced by the stone sculptures of the Panamanian site of Barriles. 14. Once the corn has softened, it is washed and then ground, three times, with a mano and metate . 15. Some examples characterized as metate might have actually been a type of throne for sitting on not a metate at all. 16. Some examples characterized as metate might have actually been a type of throne for sitting on not a metate at all. 17. Many of the statues and the metate are on currently display in the Museo Antropol�gico Reina Torres de Ara�z in Panama City. 18. Carved from a single piece of stone, these metate typically contain multiple figures, both underneath the plate and on the legs. 19. They were parched with hot coals, then ground on a metate ; the resulting food had a peanut butter-like consistency. 20. The pigments are ground into a powder using a metate grinding stone, then mixed with clay to make a milky fluid paint.
