Ancient Aegean farming implements!

[pango]

Hi folks,
My wife and I just got back from a break in Rhodes and I thought some may be interested in old farming implements that were placed as features around the grounds of our hotel.

The owner, a Rhodes man, is a keen collector of all manner of artefacts, many of which he has simply taken from abandoned farms and houses in the immediate area, although many other items inside the rooms were from all around the Aegean.

My eyes must have been on stalks when I looked behind me as we sat on the roof terrace having a drink on our first night, and saw this...


On asking, I was informed it was a seed harrow. After the seed is hand cast, the harrow would be drawn over by horse/donkey and the substantial weight of the board would firm the soil.

On the following day I photographed others standing here and there in the grounds...







There are flints embedded into the wooden skids...




but the most poignant moment of all was on realising the link from Stone Age to Iron Age on seeing...



...that old donkey shoes had been hammered in to replace missing flints!

I'm still a bit gob-smacked at the thought of how old the technology must be!

 

[Arjati]

Thanks for posting this - I have a real interest in prehistoric agriculture, and these harrows are fascinating.

 

[pango]

Hi Arjati, I'm told they were commonly used until fairly recently and may still be used on terraces inaccessible to modern machinery.

Use of flint, wood and steel though, I still find mind-blowing!

 

[crowman]

indeed they are fascinating I have great interest in agriculture old and new and have never seen harrows like those before, thanks for posting ,was their anything else? thanks rob.

 

[boatman]

Is that a harrow or an implement that is drawn over the harvested grain while it is still in the straw as part of the threshing process?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshing_board

 

[skate]

I agree with Boatman. One of these was recreated on a Time Team episode (can't remember which) and was used as mentioned. Nice find

 

[sandbender]

Thanks for posting.

 

[pango]

Ehmmm... actually Boatman and Skate, it was a waiter who told me they were harrows, which makes a lot of sense considering design and construction.

The owner/collector said afterwards they were for a threshing process... which I doubted, probably whilst picturing a circular Scottish treadle mill.

It's most interesting that same purpose came from you guys, so thanks for that. I must have missed that Time Team prog, so will look out for it.

I find the idea of parallel development quite fascinating, that we came up with the same or very similar solutions to our problems. Even more fascinating is the notion that technologies were communicated over vast distances and retained over astonishing periods of time!

There were also ploughs around the grounds,


and yolks, though the pics of them are so poor they're not worth posting.

 

[Toddy]

Excellent to see and I can well understand your feelings at seeing the flints, and then the steel, in juxtaposition.

Was there any special method of holding the flints in place or were they just really, really firmly wedged ?

Thanks for the photos

cheers,
M

 

[Arjati]

Threshing boards, my something new learnt for today. Thanks all.

 

[palmnut]

I'm pretty certain there's one of those boards at Butser Ancient Farm. Sure I saw it whilst poking about, last time I stayed there.

Peter

 

[CBJ]

What a fascinating find,

We have a little farm museum near to us that has similar and more advanced farm tools and you can learn something new every time you go there.

You can really appreciate how hard it would have been for them back then.

Atb

Craig

 

[pango]

Hi Toddy, yes indeed, and I'm still a bit blown away by the man's collection. With traditional craft and design, locally made fabrics both old and new, and ceramics of all imaginable type and age from traditional tiles and frescos to amphorae that had clearly been taken from the sea, it was like spending a week in a touchy-feely museum! And you'd have to be going around with your eyes closed to miss the fact that the colours, motifs and patterns bear a striking similarity to a culture we say was eradicated after the Theran Big Bang!

I'm kicking myself for not photographing from all angles the thresher/seed harrow boards. [now I've had time to think, I see no reason for them not to be dual/multi purpose tools, as I still think them perfect for harrowing seed!]

The flints seemed to be set in an axe cut, though hard to say as I'm sure flints would have to be commonly replaced. They seem to have been forced into place, but the wood may have been processed so as to shrink after the flints were set, possibly by pre-soaking and drying the timber afterwards?

One of the implements had no structural metalwork whatsoever, the construction fixed entirely by wooden pegs through the main boards onto cross-struts.

Some of the boards appeared to be from the same timber, so allowing them a natural curve, or to be set in the same curve, as the knots on some boards almost seemed to mirror image. Perhaps a Scandanavian ski maker would be the person to spot the method!

I know you have an interest in weaving and deyeing, Toddy, and there were what I think are called weft beaters in our room. I can post pics of these later, and also a few photos of woven fabrics, etc.

Cheers.