(AGENPARL) – Rome, 16 May 2024
(AGENPARL) – Thu 16 May 2024 PRESS RELEASE UNIVERSITY OF PISA
Archaeology: threshing sleds already in use in 6,500 BC
The important discovery made by an international research group led by the University of Pisa
In use until a few decades ago to separate straw from wheat in many Mediterranean countries, from Turkey to Spain, the threshing sled would have made its appearance in Greece as early as 6500 BC. This is according to a recent study conducted by an international group of researchers, led by the University of Pisa, who by applying advanced analytical methods to the flint industries, including confocal microscopy, were able to trace the early adoption of such technology and the adaptation of what can be considered among the first agricultural machinery in Europe.
The research, carried out within various research projects funded by the European Union, Italy and Spain and led by the University of Pisa, in collaboration with the CSIC in Spain and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, thus anticipates the previous records of such technology in Europe by at least 3,000 years, providing new insights into the technological innovations of Neolithic societies.
“For years we have been working to reconstruct the ways and mechanisms of diffusion of agriculture from the Near East to the rest of the Mediterranean – explains Professor Niccolò Mazzucco of the University of Pisa, principal researcher of the work – Discovering the processes of technological innovation and how they were introduced new machines is essential to reconstruct the technological systems of the past. The use of the threshing sled, also known by the Roman term tribulum, allows the quantity of grain processed to be significantly increased and its processing to be accelerated. In the past, it was believed that this innovation was linked to the birth of the first states, but our study shows that its first use is much older”
“In recent years – adds Mazzucco – more and more evidence has emerged that the first domestic animals were not used exclusively as a food source, but also as a workforce. And the threshing sleds are part of a broader process of technological innovation that involves the use of animals in this sense. The detailed analysis of archaeological finds and the use of advanced methodologies thus add a crucial chapter to the history of agricultural development, and underline how the Neolithic was a period of significant technological advancement”.
“All this – concludes the researcher – now allows us to better frame the development dynamics of the first European agricultural societies, to understand how the diffusion of agricultural technologies took place and to evaluate their impact on the social structure and economy of the time” .
The results of the study coordinated by the University of Pisa, presented in the latest issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, thus demonstrate that the agricultural sector was a field of technological innovation since Prehistory and raises significant questions on the transmission of technological knowledge between the different regions of the Mediterranean. What until a few decades ago was considered a late innovation, today proves to be, in fact, a practice that has existed since the early stages of the Neolithic in Europe.
Attached:
* Some photos of threshing sleds
* The laboratory where the analyzes were conducted
Nicola Maggi
