Indian Wood Pounding Table

Four deep cups in one long plank, spaced for people who got along.

This pounding table comes from India and dates to the 20th century. It is wood. Long wooden pounding surfaces are known across rural South and Southeast Asia, where grain or spices could be worked by several people at once. Four round hollows run down the center of a broad top with softly rounded ends. The slab sits on a deep, tapering base, with a warm brown surface. It stretches 99 inches long, 27.5 deep and 18 high.

Lunch was once a team sport.