My guess is that It looks like a mortar/pestel, something you used to grind herbs.

It's interesting that there is what looks like our alphabet , I can make out an A, P , N ,M , Z , W . ??

My first glance at the second picture reminds me of the 13 original zodiac signs.
Maybe it was just a mortar decorated with symbols from the time period.

In their language, of course.



Nice find!

Do you have any more information on this particular item... Where did your brother get it? and does he know anything about its origins?

suspect an old hoax ...
it appears to be a combination of writing styles .. from 3 different cultures in different era's that can make out...

nice piece for a display in curio cabinet or on a coffee table...

when druids did write it was usually in greek,but they also used the Ogham letters,which doesn't seem to be the case here.it does have some 'rune' like symbols,and perhaps greek/latin mixed in as well.i'm not an expert,but i know theres no ogham in there.cool piece though.

I have to agree with others it seems like a mix of alphabets.. i see rune symbols and also Greek letters..

The symbol of a circle with a dot in the centre (which appears a few times) is an astrological symbol for the sun.. in Egyptian glyphs its a symbol for the sun god Ra.. it means gold in alchemy and emotional restraint in Freemasonry.. It is also used as the symbol for air in some wicca and native american cultures

There are also couple of other symbols that could be from alchemy.. but it just look like its a bit jumbled up to me with various letters from different alphabets.

Yes, it appears to be a mortar -- possibly used for grinding grains or perhaps for preparing herbs and minerals for medicinal purposes. As to the writing, the symbols look runic but they're rather odd because while some (for example) appear to be Gothic -- such as hwair (the "O" symbol with the dot in the middle) and othal [a.k.a. othala or odal] (crossover single upper loop) -- some others don't seem from that group. But it could be that whoever carved them knew several types of runes and wanted to create a text or message whose meaning would be hard to derive.

If that was the case, then it suggests a ritual purpose to this item, rather than it simply being utilitarian. Actually, having letters carved inside a mortar is not the smartest thing to do if you want to use it for common, everyday purposes, so the ritual nature becomes more likely.

However I am by no means a master at this kind of thing. Just posting my view on it. Hopefully someone will come along who can actually decipher it.

Mike

i'm personally not convinced it's a grinding stone. for one thing they're never quite that concave as far as i remember, and secondly, why would anybody inscribe the inside of a grinding stone? surely they'd already be aware that it would grind down. the lack of grinding on the inscription leads me to think it's for another purpose entirely.