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 This relief depicts the usage of a winnowing basket which is used to seperate the lighter chaff and allow the heavier grain to rest in the bottom. |
Reaping the grass and separating the grain By the first century A.D., a reaping machine called a vallus had been invented in Roman Gaul. This was a device with a row of sharp prongs attached to a frame, which in turn was pushed by a donkey. The prongs grabbed the stalks of wheat; the heads of grain were tossed back into a hopper that resembled a grass catcher on a lawn mower. Once collected, the chaff and grain still needed to be separated. Using a winnowing basket , which a worker shook from side to side until the light chaff blew away, did this. This allowed heavier grain to rest in the bottom. A device called a Tribulum was also used. This was a wooden sled studded on the bottom with nails or stones and dragged by oxen. Later, an invention from North Africa was a set of toothed rollers dragged over the harvested crop by donkeys. |
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