Old wooden stool possible clamp or tool

Picked this out of an old building up for demolition . Looks like it was used to clamp something . It had a long threaded carriage bolt passing through the center used to move the wooden dowel. If you look closely , you can see where the bolt left its mark during use. Also notice the radius on the end of the dowel, as for the saw cuts on it , I think they were from using this as a small saw horse but I don't think that was it's intended purpose. Any ideas?