what's
this?
Below
are some old local artifacts.
Can you identify what they are or
their use?
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A
“zvarna”- a kind of sledge with sharp stones imbedded on
the under side. The sledge was dragged by a mule around a
threshing circle (“aloni”), weighed down by someone sitting
or standing on it (see photo). This was one way of separating
the grain from the chaff. |
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A finger protector for harvesting wheat used
in conjunction with a sickle.. 3 fingers were placed
in the holes and the hook gathered the wheat together before
being slashed. |
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An “oka”. A brass weight, weighing just over
1 kg. |
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A “tsiggeli”- believe it or not, a bucket retriever!
These are still used in villages that don’t have mains water.
If the rope snaps while fetching water from your local well,
a tsiggeli can be used to retrieve it. |
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Another way of breaking wheat husks. A bundle
of wheat was placed on the serrated piece of wood and the handle
lowered to break open the husks. Mid 19th century. |
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An “apostaktiras”- a distiller for making raki/
tsipouro. The distiller was placed over a cauldron of boiling
grape pulp (the residue from wine production) and when cooled,
the alcohol would drip out of the 2spouts. Historically, there
have been numerous attempts to control the production of raki
by the numerous different governments Greece has had since
1821, to both collect taxes and to regulate its’ consumption.
At worse, the apostaktiras were confiscated and only released
for a specific period once vines had been harvested in the
autumn. |
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Diving boots. Made of leather and weighted with
brass and lead. Used for walking on the sea bed, primarily
to collect sponges. |
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A cigar rack. Bought from a Dutch company, this
Athenian firm would clamp the freshly rolled cigars between
the 2 pieces of wood until dry. |
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A book press. The pages were clamped in the wooden
vice so they could be sewn together by hand. |
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A “distaff”, or rather 3 of them. These rods
were used for spinning wool etc. |
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Game board for Merels, also called Nine Men’s
Morris - possibly the oldest board game in the world. The earliest
confirmed date is a board dated 1400BC found at Karna in Egypt
and later examples have been found in a bronze age burial in
Ireland, on Henry VIII’s ship the Mary Rose and a temple in
Sri Lanka to mention a few. In Elizabethan England it was played
out of doors on village greens with the board cut into the
turf and Shakespeare refers to such a Nine men’s Morris board
in A Midsummer Nights Dream. The Chinese are said to have played
as early as 500BC, Ovid mentions the Romans playing the game
in “Ars Amatoria” and in Canterbury and Norwich Cathedrals
there are boards carved on pews by the monks. In Greece, examples
were found in the ruins of Troy and on the Acropolis. (For
rules and how to play the game an internet search with Google
gives many sites). The example here is one of several scratched
in marble at Charia, south of Areopolis. It cannot be dated
but is well worn suggesting that it certainly isn’t recent. |
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A stool for cutting tobacco on. The lever on
top rotates and was used as an arm rest- it swivels so as to
suit a left or right handed worker. Again, mid 19th century. |
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The marble base of an olive press. After the
olives have been crushed by revolving stones in a mill
to extract the oil, the remaining pulp is sandwiched between
circular mats and then squeezed in the press to extract any
remaining oil. The oil drips into the circular groove and into
a container via the gutter. |
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Old stone Beehives. It is not known how old
they are but when Col. W.M. Leake was travelling through Mani
in 1805, he noted similar hives. “The hives are made of four
slates set up on the edges, with other pieces for the roofs
and floors. In some of the stands there are eight or ten hives
in a row, and two or three stories of hives, so that at a distance
the structure looks like a wall built of very large stones.”
W.M. Leake “Travels in the Morea” Vol1, page 281 |
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