Harvest Hieroglyphics
The brief hieroglyphic interjections that accompany ancient Egyptian Ty harvest images may be the work of the artist, but may well be by other artisans. The symbols conjure thoughts of commotion and shouting more than any measured routine accompanied by clapping and music. The terms used include “beat,” “hurry,” and “drive them.” The next threshing […]
King Tut the Farmer?
The earliest pictorial expressions of harvest are from Egypt’s Old Kingdom (c. 2700-2100 BC) when unification of Upper and Lower Egypt led to a flowering of culture and architecture in grand monuments like the mortuary complexes at Thebes and Memphis in the fertile Nile Valley. The necropolis of Saqqara near the kingdom’s capital at Memphis […]
Farming’s Critical Role in the Emergence of Literature
When thinking of old books, I recall my farm mother’s home library that consisted of three or four shelves built by my father to hold a couple dozen of her Book of Month volumes. Since those days I have marveled at truly ancient and illuminated medieval manuscripts in libraries worldwide. Just this week here at […]
The Agricultural Origins of Writing and Arithmetic
Anyone who has compared kernels of wheat with barley or oats knows that the latter are tightly wrapped in a thin and indigestible “husk” layer that is generally removed before processing into flour, Wheaties, Cheerios, or most anything else. The world’s first farmers came to prefer “free-threshing” stands of grain that better enabled separation of […]
And While the Men were Away Hunting….
Years ago when I joined many of my farm-kid peers in long, hot days driving wheat truck in the harvest field, I was introduced to the historical fiction of authors like James Michener and Taylor Caldwell. Reading Michener’s The Source was not only highly informative and entertaining, I found it also made the time pass […]
Ancient Crops and Harvests
Soon after World War II the tale circulated among American soldiers returning from action in North Africa that grain found deep inside in the Egyptian Pyramids was found to be vital. Some kernels were planted and the variety known commercially in some places as Kamut was born. This had all the makings of a great […]
Defining Harvest, Explaining Print-Making
<h2>The meaning behind the words</h2> Although the words “reap,” “thresh,” and “harvest” are often used synonymously today, important distinctions define their use in period literature and among many farmers today. To reap is to cut grain either manually by sickle or scythe, or with a mechanical cutting bar, while threshing, or thrashing, refers to the […]
The “Good Old Days”—Sweet and Sweat
Golden age of threshing Once in a while I’ll spot something on Ebay that has special relevance to my musings on agrarian art, and when it falls into my price range that makes it doubly rewarding. So it was recently when I found an exceedingly dog-eared copy of James Wilson’s Art Designs in Harvest Machinery […]
Gleaning’s Early Modern Revival
Through arrangements with the US Department of Agriculture made possible by my friend and fellow historian Alex McGregor of Colfax’s The McGregor Company, I was recently able to visit Washington, D. C. and document works of agrarian art in our national collections. Among many highlights was seeing the gritty paintings of 1930’s New Deal artists […]
Shakespeare, Sickles, and Scythes
Gleaning in Medieval Art A few years ago my longtime Tri-City photographer friend, John Clement, and I found ourselves in the pleasant Hessian village of Schotten, Germany, about forty miles north of Frankfurt, a. M. We were helping to lead a tour of that scenic region and I had special interest in learning about farming […]