An international group of researchers, led by‘University of Pisa, discovered that the “threshing sled”, a tool in use until a few decades ago to separate the straw from the wheat, it would be appeared for the first time in Greece as early as 6500 BC
Researchers applying advanced analytical methods for flint industries, including the confocal microscopywere able to track the early adoption of such technology and the adaptation of what can be considered between the first agricultural machinery in Europe.
The research, carried out within various research projects financed by the European Union, Italy and Spain and led byUniversity of Pisain collaboration with the CSIC in Spain and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, thus anticipates previous records of this technology in Europe by at least 3,000 years, providing new insights into the technological innovations of Neolithic societies.
The results of the study coordinated by the University of Pisa, presented in the latest issue of the magazine Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, thus demonstrate that the agricultural sector has been a field of technological innovation since Prehistory and raises significant questions about the transmission of technological knowledge between 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.
“For years we have been working to reconstruct the routes and mechanisms for the diffusion of agriculture from the Near East to the rest of the Mediterranean – explains the Professor Niccolò Mazzucco of the University of Pisaprincipal investigator of the work – Discovering the processes of technological innovation and how new machines were introduced is essential for reconstructing the technological systems of the past. The use of the threshing sled, also known by the Roman term tribulum, allows you to significantly increase the quantity of grain processed and to speed up processing. 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.”
The use of the threshing sled, also known by the Roman term tribulum, allows you to significantly increase the quantity of grain processed and speed up its processing
“In the last few 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 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 that – concludes the researcher – now allows us to better understand 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”.
