A threshing board
One of the types of implements used to thresh grain is a board with stone blades. In scientific definition it is possible to meet Latin name tribulum. The Caucasus names include the words with relative meaning “chop”, “crumb” or “mill”. Such an implement was widely spread in all countries near Mediterranean and Black Seas in the Neolithic age as well as the recent years. The board under a load or a weight of the boy standing on the board was carried along the space where layer of sheaves of wheat and barley are laid. Ddown directed blades threshed grains from heads and turned straw in small pieces. Chopped straw was used as a cattle fodder and additions to clayey bricks. In a day 600 kilo of grains was threshed.
Such an implement was used all over the Caucasus, except West regions, where planting of millet was privilege and in part of the mountain regions of the Northern Caucasus where bulls were used for threshing grain. In the North and East parts of the Caucasus people used other types of the threshing tools.
According archeological and ethnographical materials, besides primary purpose, threshing board were used in a funeral rite. Obviously, boards were such a kind of mean of transport to carry the deceased to the Realm of Dead. There are evidences of using worn-out boards as a house door and that can be considered as a symbol of a borderline between the worlds. Sometimes threshing boards were used in a wedding ceremony. As Georgian mountain dwellers believed storm appeared because the threshing board, the part of the St. Elijah vehicle, thundered while it was moving along the sky. According to archaic believes the process of threshing grain, parallel with the Bible texts, was equal to death and dispersion of essence, that later had to rebirth in repeatedly increased number.
Such an implement was used all over the Caucasus, except West regions, where planting of millet was privilege and in part of the mountain regions of the Northern Caucasus where bulls were used for threshing grain. In the North and East parts of the Caucasus people used other types of the threshing tools.
According archeological and ethnographical materials, besides primary purpose, threshing board were used in a funeral rite. Obviously, boards were such a kind of mean of transport to carry the deceased to the Realm of Dead. There are evidences of using worn-out boards as a house door and that can be considered as a symbol of a borderline between the worlds. Sometimes threshing boards were used in a wedding ceremony. As Georgian mountain dwellers believed storm appeared because the threshing board, the part of the St. Elijah vehicle, thundered while it was moving along the sky. According to archaic believes the process of threshing grain, parallel with the Bible texts, was equal to death and dispersion of essence, that later had to rebirth in repeatedly increased number.
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