DOI issue:
Vol. VI : 2 1989
DOI article:Beranová, Magdalena: The agricultural tools of Bohemia: at the beginning of the Iron Age (5th - 3rd century BC)
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49003#0119
AGRIC. TOOLS OF BOHEMIA
113
Fig. 9. Blades of short scythes, 5th-4th century BC. 1 - Chynov-Libcice; 2 - Sedlec. □ Klingen der
Kurzstielsensen, 5.-4. Jh. v.Chr. 1: Chynov - Libcice; 2: Sedlec.
by slaves. Celtic Greek-type mills were ad-
justed to the needs of the barbaric milieu, of
the daily work of households without slaves.
These mills were no longer provided with an
eccentric lever but had two opposed aper-
tures in the longer sides of the grinding
stones, in which twin shorter handles for one
or two workers were set (Fig. 13). This, in
fact, was an accomplished version of the usual
sets of prehistoric grinding stones, differing
from them in their size, in the existence of a
feeder or in having a central orifice of varying
shape by means of which grain to be ground
was introduced between the grinding sur-
faces, and in the borings for side handles. Bo-
hemia has yielded 15 examples from E. Soud-
ska’s excavations at Krasovice, from the Ve-
nec hilltop site at Lcovice, from the Zatec etc.
(Beranova 1987; Frolich & Waldhauser 1989),
dating either safely or with great probability
to the 4th-2nd century BC. Other finds may
not have been identified. Rotation mills of La
Tene “Celtic” type were not in use yet in Bo-
hemia. The origins and diffusion of the latter
type of artifact must be clarified but there is
no safe evidence for them in Central Europe
before the 2nd century BC while every
household of the 1st pre-Christian century
was equipped with them. Celtic Greek-type
mills constituted an aspect of their formative
stage. In the southern part of eastern Europe,
they remained in use during the first post-
Christian centuries but this was a parti-
cularity of the local development (Beranova
1987 with further ref.).
The period of the 6th to 3rd century BC
(or at least 5th-3rd century BC) represented a
significant stage of development of agricultu-
113
Fig. 9. Blades of short scythes, 5th-4th century BC. 1 - Chynov-Libcice; 2 - Sedlec. □ Klingen der
Kurzstielsensen, 5.-4. Jh. v.Chr. 1: Chynov - Libcice; 2: Sedlec.
by slaves. Celtic Greek-type mills were ad-
justed to the needs of the barbaric milieu, of
the daily work of households without slaves.
These mills were no longer provided with an
eccentric lever but had two opposed aper-
tures in the longer sides of the grinding
stones, in which twin shorter handles for one
or two workers were set (Fig. 13). This, in
fact, was an accomplished version of the usual
sets of prehistoric grinding stones, differing
from them in their size, in the existence of a
feeder or in having a central orifice of varying
shape by means of which grain to be ground
was introduced between the grinding sur-
faces, and in the borings for side handles. Bo-
hemia has yielded 15 examples from E. Soud-
ska’s excavations at Krasovice, from the Ve-
nec hilltop site at Lcovice, from the Zatec etc.
(Beranova 1987; Frolich & Waldhauser 1989),
dating either safely or with great probability
to the 4th-2nd century BC. Other finds may
not have been identified. Rotation mills of La
Tene “Celtic” type were not in use yet in Bo-
hemia. The origins and diffusion of the latter
type of artifact must be clarified but there is
no safe evidence for them in Central Europe
before the 2nd century BC while every
household of the 1st pre-Christian century
was equipped with them. Celtic Greek-type
mills constituted an aspect of their formative
stage. In the southern part of eastern Europe,
they remained in use during the first post-
Christian centuries but this was a parti-
cularity of the local development (Beranova
1987 with further ref.).
The period of the 6th to 3rd century BC
(or at least 5th-3rd century BC) represented a
significant stage of development of agricultu-