A mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy.

Mortars and pestles have been used in cooking since the Stone Age; today they are typically associated with the pharmacy profession due to their historical use in preparing medicines.

A key advantage of the mortar is that it presents a deeper bowl for confining the material to be ground without the waste and spillage that occur with flat grinding stones.

Another advantage is that the mortar can be made large enough for a person to stand upright and adjacent to it and use the combined strength of their upper body and the force of gravity for better stamping.

Mortars and pestles predate modern blenders and grinders and can be described as having the function of small, mobile, hand-operated mills that do not require electricity or fuel to operate.

Mortars and pestles were invented in the Stone Age when humans found that processing food and various other materials by grinding and crushing into smaller particles allowed for improved use and various advantages.

Hard grains could be cooked and digested more easily if ground first, grinding potsherds into grog would vastly improve fired clay, and larger objects such as blocks of salt would be much easier to handle and use.

These rock mortars are large enough for a person to stand upright by them and crush the cereals inside the cavity with a long wooden pestle.

The Roman poet Juvenal applied both mortarium and pistillum to articles used in the preparation of drugs, reflecting the early use of the mortar and pestle as a symbol of a pharmacist or apothecary.

[8] The antiquity of the mortar and pestle is well documented in early writing, such as the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus of around 1550 BC (the oldest preserved piece of medical literature) and the Old Testament (Numbers 11:8 and Proverbs 27:22).

[9] In Indian mythology, Samudra Manthan from Bhagavata Purana creates amrita, the nectar of immortality, by churning the ocean with a pestle.

This seems as a trace of some ancient rituals connecting the witch symbols of Baba Yaga with the use of mortars in alchemy, pharmacy, and early chemistry, which were all seen as magic by uneducated people in the Medieval Ages.

Mortars are also used in cooking to prepare wet or oily ingredients such as guacamole, hummus, and pesto (which derives its name from the pestle pounding), as well as grinding spices into powder.

The molcajete, a version used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures including the Aztec and Maya, stretching back several thousand years, is made of basalt and is used widely in Mexican cooking.

Large stone mortars, with long (2–3 foot) wood pestles were used in West Asia to grind meat for a type of meatloaf, or kibbeh, as well as the hummus variety known as masabcha.

During the Middle Passage, some slave ships carried un-hulled rice, and enslaved African women were tasked with using mortars and pestles to prepare it for consumption.

Porcelain mortars are sometimes conditioned for use by grinding some sand to give them a rougher surface which helps to reduce the particle size.

Other materials used include stone, often marble or agate, wood (which is highly absorbent), bamboo, iron, steel, brass, and basalt.

Mortar and pestle sets made from the wood of old grape vines have proved reliable for grinding salt and pepper at the dinner table.