THOUSANDS of mysterious stone objects found at a site in Nicaragua appear to be parts of a cooking tool previously unknown to archaeologists.
Named raspaditas, or little scrapers, they are 1 to 2.5 centimetres long and shaped like elongated hot-air balloons, says Jolene Debert at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. By examining them under a scanning electron microscope she could see that only the wide ends were worn. This suggests they were mounted on wooden frames that have since disintegrated. What’s more, there were starch grains and tiny plant fragments called phytoliths stuck to the raspaditas, suggesting…
