The presence of a handstone in an archaeological context is often used to infer food resources were processed there. This paper compiles data from archaeological, ethnographic, and experimental resources to identify important attributes for recognizing handstones used in other activities. Specifically, we explore multiple lines of evidence for identifying handstones used to plaster walls and floors from two locations on opposite sides of the globe: the Zagros region in Iran and the Southwest region in the United States. Ethnoarchaeological and experimental methods frame our research and provide middle range theory linking our inferences about artifacts found in specific archaeological contexts to two independently developed yet strikingly similar technological traditions.
