This week's post is about as quick of a general summary of ancient farming practices & basics of daily life as you'll ever see. It is mostly a whet-your-whistle on the topic...a sort of Reader's Digest collection of writings, but I feel the subject is a relevant one, for we in our modern day tend to forget the importance of what our ancient ancestors did by passing along, generation to generation, their living and survival knowledge and skills. We tend to forget - and oftentimes romanticize in our eyes and minds - how life was so much tougher in those days of old, especially the further one travels back in time.
It would be extremely difficult for most modern persons to attempt to survive in the past, nearly any time period...which affirms a quote I take to heart:
"People today are not smarter than people of the past - we just live in a different time."
Now I know living historians, hunters, and many (but not all) modern farm-folk can make a good go. And I can honestly say, though I have experienced many traditional life skills, it would be mighty tough for me, at this point in my life, to actually live in the past. That's why I take it a day or weekend at a time!~
Just the same if those from the past were plopped down in our modern day - they would be just as lost: they would have no idea how to work our modern stove or microwave, turn on a light, open a car door, much less start or drive one, work a phone - cell or otherwise - would they know that you would have to turn on the knob at the kitchen sink for water to pour out of the faucet...?
So...who's smarter?
Why, those who are used to their own environment, of course!
In other words (and I repeat): People today are not smarter than people of the past - we just live in a different time.
So - - are you ready to begin marchin' through the ruins of time...?
(thank you Tommy James for the great line)
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It was February and early March as I wrote this, and late-March when it was published.
That means spring is here.
That also means planting season...
Are you ready?
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Back in February 2023 I wrote about the pretty amazing collection of Time-Life books on my shelves (click HERE). I've been spending much time of late going through them, beginning with the earliest chapters of recorded history, and I'm finding that these books are even better than I originally thought. I have been happily surprised that much of the text centers on early farming. And how could they not? Farming was life.
The connection between those ancient farming days of so long ago through today is a strong one:
“Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.”
Daniel Webster
(1782 - 1852)
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And here's the quote for all to see at Greenfield Village. Ed Davis took this picture for me~ |
I've always liked this quote but had never really given it deep thought. I mean, yes, I've read it and loved it, for it does have meaning, but until somewhat recently, I never fully realized its truth and deeper meaning. It was when I began researching and studying world history (re-initiated not long ago), digging deeper and deeper into the past that its truth sunk in.
Sometimes it takes age and experience to fully acknowledge historical teachings rather than college classes and school tests.
Yep---true dat.
And these studies have helped me to understand to a greater extent that the more things change, the more they stay the same. So what I present for you here is a basic covering of the ancient time of the later B.C. period and early A.D. period and its daily living & farming practices, taken mostly directly out of my books. But first, something to keep in mind:
We need to remember that change, which is at a lightning pace in our modern world, went at a snail's pace centuries and millennia ago. If you research world history, you'll find inventions generally did not spread and evolve very fast.
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| Ticking away the moments that make up a small day... |
Time seemed to move much slower. As a great example, the first wheels were not used for transportation. Evidence indicates they were created to serve as potter's wheels around 3500 to 4,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia (in Lower Mesopotamia - now modern-day Iraq), where the Sumerian people inserted rotating axles into solid discs of wood for them to spin in helping to make bowls and drinking vessels out of clay. It then took about 300 years more before someone figured out how to use these spinning pottery tools/wheels for mobility and transport on chariots. Three hundred years!
Since time and news and change moved much slower in those B.C. and early A.D. periods, naturally some forms of inventions such as furniture or tools or architecture - the fireplace, doors, tables, chairs, stools (for some examples) - did not change quickly either, for many of those same objects today often very closely resemble those of earlier times. So much, in fact, that if we brought someone from a thousand or two thousand years ago into our modern times, they would easily recognize a table, a chair, a door, etc.
However, fireplaces have advanced from fire pits to raised hearths to even gas and electric, doors have been insulated, even tables are modified for easy mobility and can be enlarged or shrunken or folded, and chairs are much more suited to the human behind therefore making them more comfortable, and the variety of stools are almost infinite.
Improvement on the basics, yet keeping them basic.
"Fishes, birds, beasts, and creeping things are not miners, but feeders and lodgers, merely. Beavers build houses, but they (don't) build them better now than they did five thousand years ago. Ants and honey-bees provide food for winter, but just in the same way they did (three thousand years ago).
Man is not the only one who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship. This improvement, he effects by Discoveries, and Inventions." Abraham Lincoln - 16th President
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| The Fertile Crescent |
The Fertile Crescent, often referred to as “the cradle of civilization,” is the crescent-shaped region in Western Asia and North Africa that spans the modern-day countries of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and, for some scholars, Egypt. The Fertile Crescent was the region where the first settled agricultural communities of the Middle East and Mediterranean basin are thought to have originated, inadvertently creating civilization as we know it. The Fertile Crescent is a hotbed of research activity linked to the rise of civilization. Although the development of cities, empires, and writing happened there, food production outdated them all. Because, as far as we know, people in the Fertile Crescent were the first to develop concentrated food production techniques and animal husbandry, they experienced dense concentrations of human population, which in turn, enabled them to advance more rapidly into technology, education, and even political systems than people in other areas.
Twelve thousand years ago, as the frozen ice age shrank back to the north and south poles, the earth again came to life. Vegetation spread, animals abounded, and humans, mostly hunter-gatherers, multiplied. But the hunter-gatherer way of life was more suitable for small groups of people. As the groups grew in size, becoming too large to sustain, members broke off to discover new hunting territory, usually within the same region; with the earth's new fruitfulness, humanity, too, was on the increase. On the upper ridges of the Fertile Crescent, wild goats and ibexes roamed favorably, while in the lower slopes would find sheep and gazelles grazing alongside of wild cattle and asses. And on the hillsides, open woodland flourished with oak, juniper, hawthorn, pistachio, and wild pear trees.
More important, however, in the areas favored by the sun and seasonal rains, vast fields of wild cereal-grasses covered the ground, in some places spreading over thousands of acres.
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Millet was a cereal widely used in the ancient world. Photo by Claus Rebler, Flickr, Creative Commons |
It was an abundance too great to pass by, and there was little chance this bounty would diminish, for the wild cereals grew, and grew very productively, scattering their seeds to the wind, landing in the soil, pushing themselves into the dirt with the help of natural elements as wind and rain, germinating and growing the next season. From what I've read, people would snatch the tops (known as an "ear") off the grain-bearing tip part of the stem of a cereal plant, such as wheat in the Fertile Crescent, or maize (corn) over in what we now call Mexico, and eat it plain. Over time, people would learn how to process the yield by way of turning it into flour for breads (for one example), making it tastier for consumption. First, the seeds were threshed with sticks to remove the rough outer casings; then it would be tossed in the air to allow the light chaff to blow away, leaving only the wanted kernels (winnowing). Sifting and grinding between stones would follow in preparation for cooking.
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| A Fontanini miniature...a donkey working at the grain mill. This does a wonderful job showing small-scale early grinding of cereal grain into flour, while we have one farmer, on the left, holding a sickle, and another, on the right, with his scythe. It really is a great depiction of harvest time and milling of 2000 years ago. That's why I like Fontanini so much! |
This process was also done in similar forms by our more recent ancestors of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (see Loranger Gristmill and Milling links at the bottom of this post).
Amid this flurry of activity, some of the seeds would inevitably be spilled and swept onto the communal garbage dump where they thrived unattended. Eventually the accidents of replanting grew in numbers, located not out in the fields of the open countryside, but on the outskirts of the settlement itself, which made it convenient for gathering and easier to protect from scavengers. Almost unconsciously, the first steps had been taken toward crop cultivation. Soon people began storing seeds with intent and then sowing them the following season. It was in this manner that settlements grew larger much quicker.
Villagers soon added to their diet migratory ducks, turkey, and other forms of meats.
The domestication of wheat and other crops is so important to the development of civilization. Although domestication of plants and crops cultivated for consumption has been carried on for over 10,000 years, this figure pales in comparison with how many years before humans fed themselves by hunting wild animals and eating wild plants. Without the transition, however, mankind could not have completed its social and cultural evolution. Cultivation of cereals played a major part in the shift from hunting and gathering to plant and animal husbandry.
Several regions were first movers in developing independent domestication. Bread wheat, barley, oats, and rye in the Middle East; rice and millet in Southeast Asia; and corn, beans, and squash in Central America (Mesoamerica) all supported the rise of civilizations.
(from Encyclopedia.com)
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The importance of grain in those ancient days is given, perhaps, a sentence or two in most school history books, not allowing students to fully grasp its importance. Not so in the great books I've found. |
The fields of grain spread across the once desolate flatlands. Groves of date palms swayed in the wind, offering fruit and shade. With all of this, the one-time nomads remained mostly in one spot; they had what they needed without moving about. They were no longer the nomads of their ancestors.
Plowing was initially a stick scraped along the ground. Advances in the design of the plow boosted productivity, and by 3000 BC, the original wooden plow, barely strong enough to scratch the ground without bending or breaking, had given way to a much sturdier bronze blade.
As these civilizations grew, changes occurred that their predecessors could have never imagined.
So it is as a whole that anthropologists believe crop and livestock cultivation actually began around 7000 B.C. If that's the case, agriculture has been feeding the world (and worrying farmers) for about 9,000 years.
Then there is the textile industry and its connection to farming and daily life:
we know that wool from sheep, feathers from geese and ducks, and animal skins themselves have kept humans warm and comfortable for thousands of years, in some form or another - as wearables or coverings. We don't necessarily know exactly when this all began, but we do know it was early in the history of mankind.
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| Abraham Lincoln - 1858 |
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln wrote how history and the Bible can intermix. So, knowing that the writings and scrolls of the bible are thousands of years old, for the oldest Biblical text found dates to about 700 B.C. (this being what archeologists have been able to locate and date - the first Biblical stories were passed down orally and only written down later by various authors), what you will see in the following is a combination of biblical information with what is found in history books; the intermingling of historical information in different forms. No, this is not a conversion post, nor the bible as history. Rather, it's showing parts of the ancient biblical text that includes the early mentioning of the technology of those early times, oftentimes still being used to some extent today.
Lincoln wrote: "The most important improvement ever made in connection with clothing was the invention of spinning and weaving. Spinning and weaving brought into the department of clothing such abundance and variety of material. Wool, the hair of several species of animals, hemp, flax, cotton, silk, and perhaps other articles, were all suited to it, affording garments not only adapted to wet and dry, heat and cold, but also susceptible of high degrees of ornamental finish. At the first interview of the Almighty with Adam and Eve, after the fall, He made "coats of skins, and clothed them'' (Genesis 3-21).
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| Woman spinning - 700–550 BC |
Abraham of the Bible's 1st Book, Genesis, mentions "thread'' - "that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap" (Genesis 14.23), and also “There is a time to rend (tear apart) and a time to sew back together” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). "Linen breeches" are mentioned ("And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness" Exodus 28.42), and it is said "all the women that were wise hearted, did spin with their hands'' (Exodus 35-25). The work of the "weaver'' is mentioned--- ("He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver—those who do every work and those who design artistic works." Exodus 35-35).
"She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." from Proverbs 31:13.
In the book of Job, the "weavers shuttle'' is mentioned ("My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle;" Job 7:6 ).
I am sure there is much more - but I've combined the findings from Lincoln's speech with my own searches (many thanks to the late Mr. Fred Priebe, for it was he who first introduced me to searching the Bible for these wonderful historical bites). I don't know...I suppose as a historian I just find this all so interesting - - - inclusive and mind-opening. To ignore any of this is, in one word, wrong.
Carrying on, the spinning of fibers to form yarn or thread has been carried out for most likely over 10,000 years, the earliest yarns being made without tools and were twisted rather than spun. In slightly more modern times, it has only been for about a millennia that most spinning was done using a spindle.
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| On a more personal note, knowing how ancient the crafts in the textile trades are, I love that textiles play such an important part and role in my 18th century living history world. I took this photo a few years back during one of my many, many visits to the 18th century Daggett Farm House located inside historic Greenfield Village. It is one of my most favorites of all of my photos, for in it we have women presenters depicting the 1760s by working with textiles. Now, this is somewhat modern in comparison to 2000+ years previous, but it still should give one a visual of the various work women carried on with from time immemorial. The chore remains the same |
Of course, as noted earlier, this was all perfected over a long length of time. The spinning wheel is modern compared to the length of time humanity has been wearing clothing. Which of course means that prior to the spinning wheel's invention in about A.D. 1000, every length of thread or yarn on earth was spun with a simple spindle and a pair of human hands. Ancient spindle whorls (small wheels or pulleys in a spinning machine, spindle, or a spinning wheel), have been found in recent Middle Eastern excavations. Though all signs point to the spinning wheel being invented in China about 1000 AD, the earliest drawing of a spinning wheel that we have is from about 1035 AD. Spinning wheels later spread from China to Iran, from Iran to India, and eventually to Europe.
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Pictured here are two spindles and a netting needle from ancient Egyptian finds. This is the tool that wove history! (click to enlarge) |
The Drop spindle has been used to spin fiber, from Egyptian mummy wrappings to tapestries, and even the ropes and sails for ships, for almost 9000 years. The first Spindles used were essentially a straight stick approximately eight to twelve inches long on which the yarn is wound after twisting. Wheels were not yet invented.
We know Sumerians also used flax. Flax is one of the earliest plants known to be used for producing textiles and actually may have been around the region for thousands of years before. But it was by the seventh millennium B.C., farmers in the fertile crescent cultivated flax, not only for its linseed oil but for its fiber.
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| Ancient spinning practices. |
As you may have seen from a few previous postings here on Passion for the Past, producing cloth from vegetable matter was a tedious process. First the flax stems had to be soaked, then vigorously pounded to release the fibers. Next the fibers were "spun" - either by rolling the spindle/stick on the thigh, or by twisting them on a free-hanging spindle (drop spindle) - - see picture at right - -before being woven on a horizontal loom that was staked out on the ground. We must remember that the earliest looms date from the 5th millennium B.C., so before that time people were doing the process by hand. The finished product, however, was well worth the trouble.
And who wouldn't want a new linen shirt or breeches?!
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Flax? Beer? The first solid proof of beer production comes from the period of the Sumerians from Sumer, which is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, emerging during the early Bronze Ages between six thousand and five thousand B.C. - perhaps earlier. I'm sure most today do not think of beer as being a part of agriculture - more on this further down in this post. And they also used flax. I didn't say they necessarily invented the flax process, for flax is one of the earliest plants known to be used for producing textiles and may have been around the region for thousands of years before. But if Sumer is considered the earliest of civilizations, well...it sounds like they very well could have invented the process, or at least improved greatly on it. I would probably not have cared a thing about this textile plant if it weren't for Roy at the Daggett House at Greenfield Village. He's the one who, years ago, initially showed and told me about it in a living history manner, and how men were involved. And I do appreciate the many other presenters throughout the years who also gave history lessons at the Village, which still sticks with me. Historical seed planters is what they were to me. |
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Alulu beer receipt – This records a purchase of “best” beer from a brewer, circa 2050 BC from the Sumerian city of Umma in ancient Iraq. |
But the farmer "grew" beer as well. The first solid proof of beer production also comes from the period of the Sumerians from Sumer, emerging during the early Bronze Ages between six thousand and five thousand B.C. - perhaps earlier.
During an archeological excavation in Mesopotamia, a tablet was discovered that showed villagers drinking a beverage from a bowl with straws.
The discovery of fermentation was probably a "happy accident" in the processing of barley grains where the secret of malting may have been revealed (the process of malting involves three main steps. The first is soaking the barley - also known as steeping - to awaken the dormant grain. Next, the grain is allowed to germinate and sprout. Finally, heating or kilning the barley produces its final color and flavor.). The liquid it produced must have been quite the "potion" of, ahem, happiness for the villagers.
Then there was the discovery of the properties of iron and the making of iron tools, which must have been among one of the earliest of important discoveries and inventions. I can't imagine of not having the possibility of making much of anything else without the use of iron tools (the hammer, the axe, the shovel). And, again, with the main necessity for iron, we find at least one very early biblical notation:
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| The blacksmith of 2000 years ago~ Fontanini Figurines |
Tubalcain (whom many consider to be the first known blacksmith) was “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron” (Genesis 4-22). Frequent mention is made of iron and instruments made of iron. At Deuteronomy 19-5 mentions "the ax to cut down the tree,'' and also at Deuteronomy 8-9, the promised land is described as "a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.''
Whether a blacksmith, a stone mason, a carpenter, or even a wine maker, nearly every man was also a farmer. As we continue on this trek, President Lincoln also wrote, "As man’s food - his first necessity - was to be derived from the vegetation of the earth, it was natural that his first care should be directed to the assistance of that vegetation."
From here we can directly go into another farming implement from which came from the iron age:
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| An ancient Sumarian plow. |
The plow, of very early origin; in fact, the earliest plows were forked sticks and timbers. In the middle east the early plows were called ard. The early plows simply loosened the soil. The first plow made by the Sumerians was about 5,000 BC.
More from Abraham Lincoln:
"And reaping and threshing were also principle improvements in agriculture. And even the oldest of these, the plow, could not have been conceived of until the idea of substituting other forces in nature for man's own muscular power came into effect. These other forces, as have been used very early on, are principally the strength of animals and the power of the wind.
Seeing that animals could carry man upon their backs early on (such as the horse), it would soon occur that they could also bear other burdens. Accordingly we find that Joseph's brethren, on their first visit to Egypt, 'laden their donkeys with the corn, and departed thence'' (Genesis 42-26).
Also it would occur that animals could be made to work; hence plows and chariots came into use early enough to be often mentioned in the books of Moses (Deuteronomy 22-10, Genesis 41-43, Genesis 46-29, Exodus 14-25).
In the very beginning, if you so believe, it says in Genesis 3-23: "Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."
Historically, the Bible and the history of man in agriculture as written in the history books, are very closely related. Perhaps they may disagree in the period in time this all occurred, but, re-read the Daniel Webster quote at the top of this post:
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| Farmer with a sickle Fontanini Figurines |
“Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.”
It seems to all tie in together now.
The Vikings certainly had their role to play in all of this, for toward the end of the first millennium:
"Turning the soil with the end of a simple metal point dragged through the dirt or with the more efficient plow, and harvesting with wood and iron sickles and scythes, (Viking) farmers grew barley, oats and rye, peas, hops, and cabbages for eating, and flax for making linen."
The "Vikings" (the Norse or Northmen) were a Germanic people. The "Anglo-Saxons" were comprised of various groups of Germanic people - the Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Northwestern and Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages.
The following drawings were taken from the Anglo-Saxon calendar from about 1000 A.D.
My interest in it is that it shows daily life per month from the first millennium of the A.D. period ("Anno Domini" or Common Era, as many use today to denote the period. I prefer using A.D.).
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~January~ The Anglo-Saxons were some of the first to use the wheeled plow shown here. This could turn heavy soils, which had not been previously plowable. The small oxen are probably depicted accurately; cattle were far smaller than those of today. |
There are a variety of sources that have the history of cattle and their sizes - how they've changed over the centuries and millennia.
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~February~ Some say the people in this image suggest that vines are being pruned using the broad-bladed tool called a serp, while others suggest that the workers are coppicing trees for firewood. |
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~March~ The workers here are breaking ground, digging, hoeing, and sowing for the coming season. |
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~May~ Sheep were important for their meat (mutton), the fleece, and the milk. Cows at this time were kept mainly to breed oxen, which were good work animals. Milk mainly came from sheep and goats. |
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~July~ July was hay month; hay was needed to feed the animals through the winter. |
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~August~ Harvest month: the method of harvesting the grain was to remain almost unchanged for another 800 years. Wheat, barley, and oats were the main cereals and formed a major part of people's diets all year long. Much of the barley was used to make into ale or beer. |
Generally, beer is a broader term encompassing various styles and flavors. In contrast, ale is a specific type of beer made with a different kind of yeast and fermented at a different temperature. When it comes to classification, beer is most often broken down into two main categories: lagers vs ales.
(from THIS site)
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~December~ The people here are threshing, winnowing, and carrying away the grain for storage. |
The above etchings were originally to record the holy days that monks were required to observe. Our interests today is in seeing everyday life as drawn by a monk who had no idea at the time these were made that he would be leaving us with one of the very few records that have survived of his time. The original is in the British Library.
The researching and importance of farming in daily life of those who lived in those B.C. and early A.D. times helps us today to understand what was done, how it was done, and when it was done, which, in turn, can guide us for future farming and living endeavors. I mean, how often do we hear of people today utilizing their survival skills during power outages, etc.,? How often do we look back in time for guidance on any help we may need for any variety of things?
The founders of civilization indeed!
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Now, please understand, I am not a farmer in my real 21st century life, nor have I ever been. However, my ancestry is steeped in farming, going back centuries on both my paternal and maternal sides. And my farmer grandfather, who I loved dearly, kept massive gardens while I was I growing up, so I have always been around horticulture. Unfortunately, grandpa died when I was 11 years old, so there were no questions to be had from this young lad.
However, I am learning hands on now...
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| Here you see my wife and I harvesting heirloom flax that we planted three months earlier. |
I may not be a farmer, but I am learning by doing, experiencing my research, and upping my game. That's what it's all about.
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| Farmer with a scythe from the Fontanini Bethlehem collection. |
The Biblical narrative in this week's post came from a speech given by Abraham Lincoln in April of 1858 to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Bloomington, Illinois. A revised version was delivered in February of 1859. So I have a combination of those two speeches inter-mixed with the other historical text from various books and web sites, with some slight verbiage changes and recent additions thrown in by me. My friend who I first met doing living history twenty years ago, the late Fred Priebe (who portrayed President Lincoln), read this speech at a reenactment and then again at a church service I attended. I had never heard it before and found it fascinating. What really grabbed my attention here is that this is all social history - farming history.
And in a relation to that:
I very much enjoy the series called "The Chosen."
"The Chosen is a groundbreaking historical drama/account based on the life of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of those who knew him."
As a Christian and a historian this series is all I would hope it to be, for it shows viewers the way people actually lived during the time Jesus walked the earth - everyday life activities that happened in their first-century historical context that really makes them all come to life like I've not seen before. A couple of good examples is watching wine being made by foot-stomping in the 1st season, and in the 4th season we see different wine makers who did it with a wine press. Also in the 4th season I very much enjoyed watching ancient farming technology as not shown elsewhere, such as seeing them thresh grain with hand-held flails, winnowing (removing the chaff), and then using a quern to grind the grain into flour. And, best of all, it is done with historical accuracy, which is so cool to someone like me who very much enjoys such historic daily life activities.
The series also shows the Jewish traditions and laws, Roman laws, and Jesus' disciples occasionally bickering and joking around - even, in season three, we see Jesus and his apostles swimming in a lake and splashing each other, laughing - all of which brings a realism not seen elsewhere. It's always come across that biblical folk were all serious, pious, and solemn all the time, which I felt was incorrect. In The Chosen, we see regular people.
Until next time, see you in time - - -
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Sources:
An on-line piece on Sumer's inventions HERE
Various books from the Time-Frame collection: including The Human Dawn: Early Man (covers the Sumerians quite well)
Various Bible passages I found, as well as Abraham Lincoln's Speech given to me by Fred Priebe
HERE is a post showing my wife & I experiencing 18th century gardening
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