Places of enforced labor like the one in which Samson spends the last months of his life were equipped with a number of handmills for grinding.109 These were “saddle-querns,” consisting of two complementary stone slabs: the lower millstone (proverbial for its hardness) was usually a basalt stone imported from the Hauran region, and the upper millstone made of basalt or sandstone was quite heavy.110 Kneeling in front of the quern, the miller moved the upper millstone up and down the lower stone, thus grinding the grain between the two. It was difficult labor, especially in the prison-type mills
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