Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (7.1992/1995)

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REVIEWS

In Part IV, ?lgrzc«Zt«re, arranged by M.-F. De-
vos-Firmin and G. Fermin, is an illustrated extract
of Grith Lerche’s experiments in producing wear-
marks in plough-furrows and on the front of
mould-boards based on her research with replicas
of a medieval wheel-plough.
Axel Steensberg
Il grano e le marine - La macinazione die cereali in
Alto Adige dall’Antichita al Medioevo.
Museo Provinciale di Castel Tirolo, aprile 1994.
The abundantly illustrated catalogue issued in an
English and a German version by the Regional
Museum of Alto Adige in Tyrol Castle featuring a
brilliantly organized exhibition on “Grain and
Grinding” amounts to an outstanding monograph
on a most important chapter of the cultural his-
tory of this geographically and agriculturally very
distinct part of Europe. By means of instructive
and graphically pleasantly composed schedules, a
complete survey is obtained showing the complex-
ity of the topic according to the latest archaeolog-
ical data in full detail.
It contains an introduction by Professor
G. Forni about the origins of the ancestral feral
cereals, their distribution and early stages of do-
mestication, as well as a description of the prehis-
toric technology of the tilling systems involved. A
further section by K. Oeggl deals with the marked
position of Southern Tyrol as a transit passage be-
tween the Mediterranean and the Alpine region. A
special article by L. Dal Ri deals with the contem-
porary efforts and results of research concerning
prehistoric and medieval grinding stones and mill
stones while M. Donner and C. Marcoli discuss
the technological development of grinding imple-
ments, covering the earliest Neolithic devices, the
handmills of classical and early medieval times and
the various systems of water-mills during the fol-
lowing centuries. Three chapters by the editor
S.W. de Rachewiltz, deal with the role of mill-
stones in the mythological or religious context and
as an iconographical topic throughout the history
of art, the historical importance of hydropower in
Tyrol and lastly the medieval handmills located at
Tyrol Castle.

GAETANO FORNI: Gli albori dell’ agricultura.
Origine ed evoluzione fino agli Etruschi ed Italici.
Rome 1990. REDA-Edizioni - Roma Editoriale
degli Agricoltori. 430 pp. Preis L 70.000.
In Ankniipfung an seine jiingsten Arbeiten, deren
Forschungsschwerpunkt die Entwicklung der
landwirtschaftlichen Hauptgerate Pflug und Wa-
gen bildete, prasentiert der international renom-
mierte lombardische Agrarhistoriker eine Mono-
graphic uber die Anfange der Landwirtschaft auf
der Appenninhalbinsel und deren vielfaltige Quer-
verbindungen zu den Agrarkulturen des prahisto-
rischen und antiken Mittelmeerraumes.
Uber samtliche kulturellen Phasen der vorin-
dustriellen Epoche werden die wichtigsten Land-
wirtschaftsgerate von der Bodenbearbeitung bis
zur Ernte in ihrer historischen Evolution seit dem
Neolithikum verfolgt und nicht nur im jeweils
kulturspezifischem wirtschaftlichem und okolo-
gischem Zusammenhang, sondern auch vor den
entsprechenden siedlungsgeschichtlichen, lingui-
stischen, populationsgenetischen sowie religions-
historischen Hintergrtinden dargestellt.
Da dies anhand der aktuellsten archaologischen
Befunde unter technisch fundiertem ergologi-
schem Blickwinkel geschieht, wird eine liickenlose
Ubersicht liber die regionale Differenzierung der
einzelnen Geratetypen seit ihren primitivsten Ur-
sprungsformen geboten, welche mit manchen
uberholten Hypothesen aufraumt und wesentliche
neue Aspekte fiir die gesamte Thematik eroffnet.
H. C. Dosedla

H. C. Dosedla