Ancient farmers cultivated plants such as barley

Before other plants, farmers began to grow:
1.rye
2. buckwheat
3.barley and wheat
4.corn
Which of the following appeared in Western Asia about 9 thousand years ago?
1.collection
2.metal processing
3. agriculture
4. cattle breeding
Why did many genera call themselves after any animal or bird, for example, "kind of Bear", "kind of Wolf", "kind of Hawk"?
1.primitive people lived in an area where there were many just such animals and birds
2.from generation to generation, a legend was passed on, according to which members of the genus had to hunt only these animals and birds
3.the relatives believed that this animal (bird) was their distant ancestor
4.the clan changed its name every year, choosing the one that was supposed to show other communities its strength and power
Which of the following items were used by artisans in their work?
1.plow
2.sickle
3.kiln for firing products
4.hoe
5.potter's wheel
6.harpoon
7.loom
8.metal smelting furnace
Establish correspondence: what came from what? Record the resulting sequence of numbers in the table.
• A) hunting
• B) production of tools, clothing, household utensils for their own needs
• B) gathering 1. craft
2. farming
3. cattle breeding
Which of the following features characterize the tribal community, and which - the neighbor's? Write down the numbers of the selected answers in the table.
1.Kinsmen chose elders - respected and wise old people
2.the head of the community was chosen by community members for wisdom and life experience
3.the elders and leaders of the tribe were nobility
4.nobility was inherited
5.all members of the community are relatives
6.Community members are neighbors
7.conversion of captives into slavery
8.property and social equality
9.property and social inequality
Arrange these events in the order in which they occurred. Record the resulting sequence of numbers in the table.
1.allocation of the nobility
2.the emergence of agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts, the transition to a sedentary life
3.transition to a neighborhood community
4.invention of the plow, the use of animals for plowing, the development of metals
5.the emergence of surplus products - there is no need for collective work

Option number 1

According to scientists, agriculture and metal processing appeared:

1. in East Asia
2. in Western Asia
3. in South Africa
4. in northern Europe

ANSWER: 2) in Western Asia

The first animal that man has tamed is

1. sheep
2. goat
3. dog
4. cow

ANSWER: 3) dog

Which of the listed metals was the first person to master?

1. gold
2. silver
3. iron
4. copper

ANSWER: 4) copper

Which of the listed tools appeared more than 10 thousand years ago, and which about 9 thousand years ago? Write down the numbers of the selected answers in the table.

1. wooden plow
2. stone ax
3. copper ax
4. hoe

ANSWER: 

More than 10 thousand years ago	About 9 thousandyears ago
1, 2, 4	3

Establish a correspondence between concepts and their definitions. Record the resulting sequence of numbers in the table.

A) gods B) prayer C) idol D) victim E) spirit

offering to spirits a request to the spirits, gods a supernatural creature that seems to live in plants, animals, stones or personify natural phenomena (thunder, lightning, wind, rain, etc.) image of god (or spirit) the strongest and most powerful spirits

ANSWER:

Which of the following features characterize the tribal community, and which - the neighbor's? Write down the numbers of the selected answers in the table.

1. joint work of the whole community in the fields
2. joint hunting
3. idea of ​​descent from a common ancestor
4. common land
5. community members - neighbors
6. community members - relatives
7. each family has its own plot of land and livestock
8. each member of the community has their own tools
9. community equality
10. the harvest belonged to the family and was controlled by the head of the family
11. common economy and harvest
12. community inequality

ANSWER:

Signs of a clan community	Signs of a neighborhood community
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11	5, 7, 8, 10, 12

Which of the following signs testified that primitive people moved from the appropriation of the products of nature (appropriating economy) to their independent production (producing economy)? Write down the numbers of the selected answers in the table.

1. clearing the soil for arable land
2. domestication and domestication of wild animals
3. growing new varieties of plants
4. collection of wild fruits, berries, cereals (barley, wheat)
5. hunting with bow and arrow for wild animals
6. use of fire
7. breeding new breeds of livestock
8. fishing
9. invention of fabric, pottery, the development of metals
10. the use of animal skins as clothing

ANSWER:

Attributes of the assigning farm:	Signs of a producing farm:
4, 5, 6, 8, 10	1, 2, 3, 7, 9

Option number 2

Before other plants, farmers began to grow:

1. rye
2. buckwheat
3. barley and wheat
4. corn

ANSWER: 3) barley and wheat

Which of the following appeared in Western Asia about 9 thousand years ago?

1. gathering
2. metal processing
3. agriculture
4. cattle breeding

ANSWER: 2) metal processing

Why did many genera call themselves after any animal or bird, for example, "kind of Bear", "kind of Wolf", "kind of Hawk"?

1. primitive people lived in an area where there were many just such animals and birds
2. from generation to generation, a legend was passed on, according to which members of the genus had to hunt only these animals and birds
3. relatives believed that this animal (bird) was their distant ancestor
4. the clan changed its name every year, choosing the one that was supposed to show other communities its strength and power

ANSWER: 3)

Which of the following items were used by artisans in their work?

1. plow
2. sickle
3. oven for firing products
4. hoe
5. Potter's wheel
6. harpoon
7. loom
8. furnace for smelting metals

ANSWER: 3, 5, 7, 8

Establish correspondence: what came from what? Record the resulting sequence of numbers in the table.

A) hunting B) the manufacture of tools, clothing, household utensils for their own needs B) gathering

craft agriculture cattle breeding

ANSWER:

Which of the following features characterize the tribal community, and which - the neighbor's? Write down the numbers of the selected answers in the table.

1. kinsmen chose elders - respected and wise old people
2. the head of the community was chosen by community members for wisdom and life experience
3. the elders and leaders of the tribe were nobility
4. nobility was inherited
5. all members of the community are relatives
6. community members - neighbors
7. enslavement of captives
8. property and social equality
9. property and social inequality

ANSWER:

Signs of a tribal community:	Signs of a neighborhood community:
1, 2, 5, 8	3, 4, 6, 7, 9

Arrange these events in the order in which they occurred. Record the resulting sequence of numbers in the table.

1. allocation of nobility
2. the emergence of agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts, the transition to a settled life
3. transition to a neighbor's community
4. invention of the plow, the use of animals for plowing, the development of metals
5. the appearance of surplus products - there is no need for collective work

ANSWER:

There were no shops in Ancient Rus, so food had to be grown by ourselves. The land in Russia has always been fertile, the main territory of the land was black soil, and it was a sin not to use it. Agriculture was discovered by women. They loosened the ground near the house with whatever fell under the hands, with sticks, bones, stones, and put the seeds of wild plants in the holes formed. Later, the plants became domesticated and fully adapted for human consumption.

By the way…

Over time, more and more territory was required for sowing, and it had to be cleared and dug up, thus, men joined in agriculture. They sowed cereals and cereals in the fields, as well as hemp and flax, which were used to make ropes and fabrics.

What was the farmer in Russia, and what was his way of life. Types of agriculture.

In ancient Russia, a peasant farmer was very hardworking, worked tirelessly. They put on the clothes that they sewed themselves. The clothes were loose and comfortable for both work and leisure. They ate what the land gave. They ground the grain and baked the first bread. They paid tribute in grain and cloth, paid taxes.

The peasants were divided into feudal-dependent and free. Feudal dependent peasants should not be confused with slaves. Slaves were completely subordinate to the owners, and the peasants paid taxes to the feudal lords, but at the same time they had their own house, their own income, a plot of land and livestock. Initially, free farmers, commoners in Ancient Rus were called smerds, but over time they also fell into partial feudal dependence. With all this, they retained legal freedom. If the stinker took a kupa (loan) from the prince, then it passed into the category of purchases, of the lower class of peasants. The purchases were supposed to work for the feudal lord for free until they worked out their debt in full. An even lower class of peasants was called slaves. Serfs are the same as slaves who are completely dependent on the principality and do not have any rights. In 1723, servitude was abolished by Peter the Great.

Do you know what type of farming prevailed among the Eastern Slavs? The most predominant farming systems among the Eastern Slavs were called the slash-and-burn system and the fallow. Which system the farmers used depended on natural and climatic conditions. The slash-and-burn system prevailed in the north in the Taiga. It consisted in the fact that in one year trees were cut down and allowed to dry. In the second year, dry trees were burned, and grain crops were sown in this place. Ash served as a fertilizer. By the way, modern land workers also use ash as fertilizer. For several years the land gave a good harvest, but later it had to be allowed to rest.

Perelog was the southern farming system. The peasants could rid the plot of weeds for several years. When the land was depleted, they moved to another territory, and this area was left to "rest" for 10 years. This type of farming is also called arable farming and it was used on the territory of steppe forests.

From what territory the sowing took place depended on what the ancient farmers cultivated. In the south, buckwheat, millet, spelled, and wheat were grown. In the north, the field was sown with oats, barley, millet, winter rye and spring wheat. With the development of agriculture in Ancient Russia, they began to plant not only cereals, but also vegetables. Most of all, rutabagas, beets, carrots, potatoes, pumpkin were grown, then legumes appeared. As mentioned above, not everything that was grown was eaten. Flax and hemp were used to make fabric. All these cultures are the main agriculture of the Eastern Slavs.

Farmer of Ancient Russia

Agriculture is hard work and it is impossible without various inventions designed to help in this difficult matter. People began to create tools to help themselves. Those devices that were used in Ancient Russia have come down to us, but over time they have been modernized and improved.The quality and quantity of the future harvest directly depended on what tools were used in agriculture. The tools of labor used by ancient farmers include: plow, hoe, sickle, ax and others. Let's understand in more detail.

Farmer's tools of labor.

1. 

   Sickle. This tool was used to harvest grain crops. Harvesting such a crop was called the harvest. Consisted of a steel, rounded like a month, a thin blade and a short wooden handle.

2. Spit. The scythe is an agricultural tool for cutting grass. Has a long and sharp knife, slightly curved inward, made of steel. The handle of the braid is long, made of wood.
3. Hoe. Now this tool is called a hoe. It has a long wooden handle and a paddle located perpendicular to the handle. The shoulder pad was square in shape and made of sturdy metal. It was used to chop off weeds right at the root, in other words for weeding. A pickaxe was used to work in hard soil.
4. Plow. The plow was indispensable for plowing the land. The plow was used to turn the topsoil. Most often it was made of metal. Initially, the plow was pulled by the farmers themselves, later they began to use horses for this.
5. Sokha. Plowing tool. The plow consisted of a thick long wooden plank with two metal teeth at the edges. The working wooden part of the plow was called rassokha, and the iron teeth were called openers. The plow was attached to the shafts into which the horse was harnessed. This tool is somewhat similar to a plow, but the plow does not turn the ground, but shifts it to the side.
6. Spade. A device similar to a modern shovel in Russia was called a spade, now such a word is outdated, but the shovel continues to exist and is used in agriculture to this day. Previously, the spade was completely wooden, with only a metal tip. Later, a completely iron, pointed digging part was attached to a wooden long handle, which is called a handle. This name was formed from the word to step up, step on the foot.
7. Rake. The rake was and is still used today to break up clods of already plowed soil. With the help of this tool, weeds and other unnecessary items were collected from the cultivated soil, and the mowed grass was also raked into one part. The Old Russian rake consisted of a wooden block, which was called a ridge. Holes were made in the ridge, into which iron teeth were inserted. A long wooden handle was attached to this base. In Ancient Russia, the rake was hand or horse-drawn, in the modern world there is a rake for a tractor. By the way, such a popular expression "to step on a rake" means to make a stupid mistake, because if you step on the ridge of a rake, you can get a handle on the forehead.
8. Pitchfork. It is an agricultural tool used to collect and load hay. Also, this tool was used to puncture the soil, with the help of which its supply of oxygen was increased. The pitchfork consists of a metal piercing part, with several teeth (from three to seven pieces) and a long wooden handle. By the way, in Christian mythology, the pitchfork was considered an instrument of the Devil and devils, used to torture sinners in hell. This belief came out of the images of the ancient gods, Neptune or Poseidon, which came down to the first Christians, who were perceived as the Devil, and the trident as a pitchfork. The ancient pagan Slavs did not have such associations, and the pitchfork was perceived exclusively as a tool of labor.
9. Chain. A chain is two sticks connected to each other that had mobility, the first long stick was a handle, and the second short one was a thresher. Such a device was used to thresh grain or separate grains from chaff. This tool was used not only in Ancient Russia. By the way, on the basis of the flail, military melee weapons appeared - a mace or a battle flail, and the famous Japanese edged weapons - nunchucks.
10. Harrow. The harrow was used in the slash-and-burn farming system, helping to avoid drying out the earth and collecting weeds. Created from wood.

Since in the era of Ancient Russia people were pagans, a huge part of their life was occupied by rituals and rituals. These traditions and agriculture were not spared. The Slavs believed that the rituals helped to appease the gods, and guaranteed them a good harvest. As a rule, rituals were performed on the days of spring holidays.

Slavic agricultural rites.

1. 

   Christmas agricultural rites. In the first week of Christmastide, fasting was observed, in the second week, people wondered. Christmastide lasted from 7 to 19 January.

2. Shrovetide rituals. Such ceremonies were held at the end of winter on Shrovetide from March 21, this is the day of the vernal equinox. The Slavs took the first pancake out into the yard and laid it on the ground. It was a gift to the gods Vesna and Yarila. Thanks to this, the sun warmed up the fields faster and stronger.
3. Cleansing rites. It was believed that a lot of wickedness was going to gather during the winter, and it was necessary to get rid of it. First, people washed their homes and themselves, collected all the garbage and burned it in the yards, the smoke from the fires was supposed to drive away evil spirits. Then the fields were showered with ashes from these bonfires. It is not surprising that they received a good harvest from this ceremony, because ash is an excellent fertilizer. Willow branches were placed along the edges of the field, since for the ancient peasants it was a sacred plant, because the pussy willow gave its first buds earlier than other plants.
4. Red hill. In the spring everything blossomed, birds flew in, the sun was shining. The first grass appeared in the fields and hills, and this created a certain contrast. Hence the name "Red Hill", red means beautiful. The crops were rolled in an egg, read conspiracies and sprinkled with bone meal. Flour was supposed to protect the future harvest from hail. The egg was buried in the field as a symbol of fertility.
5. Sacrifices. The pagans considered the earth to be alive, she was their deity, and they thought that when plowing, they hurt her. Therefore, the land had to be appeased. For this, bread was inserted into the furrows, and after the end of the sowing season, they walked around the fields with food and mash and had a feast. Early spring was associated with the return of birds, so the Slavs caught the bird as a symbol of spring and ate it. It was believed that, in this way, it was best to use the forces of spring.
6. Kolosyanitsa. The girls took food and went to the birch, arranged a feast around it, sang songs, and danced in circles. They believed that birch has the power of fertility, and they wanted to use its power in the fields.
7. Rites dedicated to the deities Kupala and Yarila. When the time of the harvest came, bonfires were kindled and the fields were bypassed, reading conspiracies. This was done in honor of Kupala, who was considered the god of abundance and harvest. The bonfires were designed to drive away evil spirits from the already ripe fruits. God Yarilo, was considered the god of the sun, and the sun was of great importance for the ancient Slavs and thanks to him crops grew.
8. Harvest feasts of zhinka (beginning of harvest) and rezinka (end of harvest). At this time, evil spirits were driven out. They baked ceremonially bread from the first and last sheaf of the harvest. The grains were stored at home and mixed with soil during the next sowing.

In the 21st century, such rituals have become a relic of the past, and special machines are used to cultivate large areas. Nevertheless, one cannot belittle the work of our ancestors, because they gave us the beginning for the development of modern technology. And the ancient Slavic holidays are observed to this day, just for the sake of fun and as a tribute to the traditions of our history.

More Slavic rites here

Agriculture, being the most ancient type of human activity, developed rather unevenly in different countries.

What is farming?

Agriculture, which arose in the era of the primitive system, is the result of a long period of human development.

It began when people already knew how to hunt and were collecting wild fruits. Human labor began to be spent on the production of plants, on the isolation and reproduction of the most useful species, on a certain impact on them in order to adapt to their needs.

Agricultural history: origin, tools

The origin of agriculture took place a long time ago, when people noticed that various grains of fruits or ears, falling on the soil (and loose), germinate and again bear fruit.It was then that the thought came to them that in this way it is possible to grow food. Since then, they began to plant and grow the seeds of edible plants.

For sowing, the most even plots of land were selected, and those located closer to the water. People learned to loosen the land cleared of weeds with peculiar hoes, after which they threw grains into this land. It was a hoe type of farming. After the harvest was ripe, they collected it using a sickle, consisting of an arched wooden or bone base (handle), into which sharp fragments of stones were inserted.

The advent of agriculture contributed to the creation of newer and more convenient tools. After a certain time, people also built a plow. At first it was just a pole with a sharp knot at its end. She simply became attached to a team of bulls. This tool could cultivate more land, and people also noticed that the yield from such a plowed field was higher than from the land cultivated with a hoe. The plow plowed the ground deeper, and the seeds planted deeper gave better germination.

First grown plants

The first plants grown by humans were barley, wheat, and millet. And their homeland is Western Asia (the peninsula of Asia Minor and the regions adjacent to it). It was in these places that the most ancient settlements of farmers were found. They were founded 10,000 years ago. Then, from these places, agriculture began to gradually spread throughout the world.

It can be concluded that such agriculture in those days, when people were already leading a more sedentary lifestyle, contributed to the emergence of new inventions, more convenient and improved tools of labor. Thanks to this process, craft began to develop - manual small-scale production of tools and various devices.

Development of agriculture by territories

A large number of archaeological and paleobotanical scientific studies indicate a connection between the origin of agriculture in antiquity with the zones of mountain plateaus and valleys in the subtropical belt. The famous scientist N.I. Vavilov identified several very ancient centers of the emergence of agriculture (VII-III millennium BC):

1. Western Asia (wheat, barley, etc.).
2. Mountainous and eastern valleys of China (wheat, rice, millet, etc.).
3. Mexico (peppers, beans, etc.).
4. Central Peru (pepper, pumpkin, cotton, beans, etc.).

What is agriculture in distant America? There it arose completely independently of other territories of the continent and is probably even more ancient.

The oldest regions in the world in terms of the development of agricultural culture in the world after Mexico: Peru, India, Bolivia, China, Egypt and Syria.

In Western Europe, the emergence of agriculture dates back to the V-IV millennia BC.

On the territory of Russia and the territories adjacent to it, agriculture arose in the Stone Age. Moreover, the most ancient centers are the regions of the entire Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

Conclusion

Having dealt with the question of what agriculture is, we can conclude: having mastered this type of activity and animal husbandry, mankind gradually moved from appropriating (as it was in ancient times) farming to producing - the process of improving the tools for labor went faster. And this contributed to the emergence of the craft.

There were no shops in Ancient Russia, so food had to be grown by ourselves. The land in Russia has always been fertile, the main territory of the land was black soil, and it was a sin not to use it. Agriculture was discovered by women. They loosened the ground near the house with whatever came under their hands, with sticks, bones, stones, and put the seeds of wild plants in the holes formed. Later, the plants became domesticated and fully adapted for human consumption.

By the way…

Over time, more and more territory was required for sowing, and it had to be cleared and dug up, thus men also joined in agriculture. They sowed cereals and cereals in the fields, as well as hemp and flax, which were used to make ropes and fabrics.

What was the farmer in Russia, and what was the way of his life. Types of agriculture.

In ancient Russia, a peasant farmer was very hardworking, worked tirelessly. They put on the clothes that they sewed themselves. The clothes were loose and comfortable for both work and leisure. They ate what the land gave. They ground the grain and baked the first bread. They paid tribute in grain and cloth, paid taxes.

The peasants were divided into feudal-dependent and free. Feudal dependent peasants should not be confused with slaves. Slaves were completely subordinate to the owners, and the peasants paid taxes to the feudal lords, but at the same time they had their own house, their own income, a plot of land and livestock. Initially, free farmers, commoners in Ancient Rus were called smerds, but over time they also fell into partial feudal dependence. With all this, they retained legal freedom. If the stinker took a kupa (loan) from the prince, then it passed into the category of purchases, of the lower class of peasants. The purchases were supposed to work for the feudal lord for free until they worked out their debt in full. An even lower class of peasants was called slaves. Serfs are the same as slaves who are completely dependent on the principality and do not have any rights. In 1723, servitude was abolished by Peter the Great.

Do you know what type of farming prevailed among the Eastern Slavs? The most predominant farming systems among the Eastern Slavs were called the slash-and-burn system and the fallow. Which system the farmers used depended on natural and climatic conditions. The slash-and-burn system prevailed in the north in the Taiga. It consisted in the fact that in one year trees were cut down and allowed to dry. In the second year, dry trees were burned, and grain crops were sown in this place. Ash served as a fertilizer. By the way, modern land workers also use ash as fertilizer. For several years the land gave a good harvest, but later it had to be allowed to rest.

Perelog was the southern farming system. The peasants could rid the plot of weeds for several years. When the land was depleted, they moved to another territory, and this area was left to "rest" for 10 years. This type of farming is also called arable farming and it was used on the territory of steppe forests.

On what territory the sowing took place depended on what the ancient farmers cultivated. In the south, buckwheat, millet, spelled, and wheat were grown. In the north, the field was sown with oats, barley, millet, winter rye and spring wheat. With the development of agriculture in Ancient Russia, they began to plant not only cereals, but also vegetables. Most of all, rutabagas, beets, carrots, potatoes, pumpkin were grown, then legumes appeared. As mentioned above, not everything that was grown was eaten. Flax and hemp were used to make fabric. All these cultures are the main agriculture of the Eastern Slavs.

Farmer of Ancient Russia

Agriculture is hard work and it is impossible without various inventions designed to help in this difficult matter. People began to create tools to help themselves. Those devices that were used in Ancient Russia have come down to us, but over time they have been modernized and improved. The quality and quantity of the future harvest directly depended on what tools were used in agriculture. The tools of labor used by ancient farmers include: plow, hoe, sickle, ax and others. Let's understand in more detail.

Farmer's tools of labor.

1. 

   Sickle. This tool was used to harvest grain crops. Harvesting such a crop was called the harvest. Consisted of a steel, rounded like a month, a thin blade and a short wooden handle.

2. Spit. The scythe is an agricultural tool for cutting grass. Has a long and sharp knife, slightly curved inward, made of steel. The handle of the braid is long, made of wood.
3. Hoe. Now this tool is called a hoe. It has a long wooden handle and a paddle located perpendicular to the handle. The shoulder pad was square in shape and made of sturdy metal. It was used to chop off weeds right at the root, in other words for weeding. A pickaxe was used to work in hard ground.
4. Plow. The plow was indispensable for plowing the land. The plow was used to turn the topsoil. Most often it was made of metal.Initially, the plow was pulled by the farmers themselves, later they began to use horses for this.
5. Sokha. Plowing tool. The plow consisted of a thick long wooden plank with two metal teeth at the edges. The working wooden part of the plow was called rassokha, and the iron teeth were called openers. The plow was attached to the shafts into which the horse was harnessed. This tool is somewhat similar to a plow, but the plow does not turn the ground, but shifts it to the side.
6. Spade. A device similar to a modern shovel in Russia was called a spade, now such a word is outdated, but the shovel continues to exist and is used in agriculture to this day. Previously, the spade was completely wooden, with only a metal tip. Later, a completely iron, pointed digging part was attached to a wooden long handle, which is called a handle. This name was formed from the word to step up, step on the foot.
7. Rake. The rake was and is still used today to break up clods of already plowed soil. With the help of this tool, weeds and other unnecessary items were collected from the cultivated soil, and the mowed grass was also raked into one part. The Old Russian rake consisted of a wooden block, which was called a ridge. Holes were made in the ridge, into which iron teeth were inserted. A long wooden handle was attached to this base. In Ancient Russia, the rake was hand or horse-drawn, in the modern world there is a rake for a tractor. By the way, such a popular expression “to step on a rake” means to make a stupid mistake, because if you step on the ridge of a rake, you can get a handle on the forehead.
8. Pitchfork. It is an agricultural tool used to collect and load hay. Also, this tool was used to puncture the soil, with the help of which its supply of oxygen was increased. The pitchfork consists of a metal piercing part, with several teeth (from three to seven pieces) and a long wooden handle. By the way, in Christian mythology, the pitchfork was considered an instrument of the Devil and devils, used to torture sinners in hell. This belief came out of the images of the ancient gods, Neptune or Poseidon, which came down to the first Christians, who were perceived as the Devil, and the trident as a pitchfork. The ancient pagan Slavs did not have such associations, and the pitchfork was perceived exclusively as a tool of labor.
9. Chain. A chain is two sticks connected to each other that had mobility, the first long stick was a handle, and the second short one was a thresher. Such a device was used to thresh grain or separate grains from chaff. This tool was used not only in Ancient Russia. By the way, on the basis of the flail, military melee weapons appeared - a mace or a battle flail, and the famous Japanese edged weapons - nunchucks.
10. Harrow. The harrow was used in the slash-and-burn farming system, helping to avoid drying out the land and collecting weeds. Created from wood.

Since in the era of Ancient Rus people were pagans, a huge part of their life was occupied by rituals and rituals. These traditions and agriculture were not spared. The Slavs believed that the rituals helped to appease the gods, and guaranteed them a good harvest. As a rule, rituals were performed on the days of spring holidays.

Slavic agricultural rites.

1. 

   Christmas agricultural rites. In the first week of Christmastide, fasting was observed, in the second week, people wondered. Christmastide lasted from 7 to 19 January.

2. Shrovetide rituals. Such ceremonies were held at the end of winter on Shrovetide from March 21, this is the day of the vernal equinox. The Slavs took the first pancake out into the yard and laid it on the ground. It was a gift to the gods Vesna and Yarila. Thanks to this, the sun warmed up the fields faster and stronger.
3. Cleansing rites. It was believed that a lot of wickedness was going to gather during the winter, and it was necessary to get rid of it.At first, people washed their homes and themselves, collected all the garbage and burned it in the yards, the smoke from the fires was supposed to drive away evil spirits. Then the fields were showered with ashes from these bonfires. It is not surprising that they received a good harvest from this ceremony, because ash is an excellent fertilizer. Willow branches were placed along the edges of the field, since for the ancient peasants it was a sacred plant, because the pussy willow gave its first buds earlier than other plants.
4. Red hill. In the spring everything bloomed, birds flew in, the sun was shining. The first grass appeared in the fields and hills, and this created a certain contrast. Hence the name "Red Hill", red means beautiful. The crops were rolled in an egg, read conspiracies and sprinkled with bone meal. Flour was supposed to protect the future harvest from hail. The egg was buried in the field as a symbol of fertility.
5. Sacrifices. The pagans considered the earth to be alive, she was their deity, and they thought that when plowing, they hurt her. Therefore, the land had to be appeased. For this, bread was inserted into the furrows, and after the end of the sowing season, they walked around the fields with food and mash and had a feast. Early spring was associated with the return of birds, so the Slavs caught the bird as a symbol of spring and ate it. It was believed that, in this way, it was best to use the forces of spring.
6. Kolosyanitsa. The girls took food and went to the birch, arranged a feast around it, sang songs, and danced in circles. They believed that birch has the power of fertility, and they wanted to use its power in the fields.
7. Rites dedicated to the deities Kupala and Yarila. When the time of the harvest came, fires were kindled and the fields were bypassed, reading conspiracies. This was done in honor of Kupala, who was considered the god of abundance and harvest. The bonfires were designed to drive away evil spirits from the already ripe fruits. God Yarilo, was considered the god of the sun, and the sun was of great importance for the ancient Slavs and thanks to him crops grew.
8. Harvest feasts of zhinka (beginning of harvest) and rezinka (end of harvest). At this time, evil spirits were driven out. They baked ceremonially bread from the first and last sheaf of the harvest. The grains were stored at home and mixed with soil during the next sowing.

In the 21st century, such rituals have become a relic of the past, and special machines are used to cultivate large areas. Nevertheless, we cannot belittle the work of our ancestors, because they gave us the beginning for the development of modern technology. And the ancient Slavic holidays are observed to this day, just for the sake of fun and as a tribute to the traditions of our history.

More Slavic rites here

Common barley

Hordeum vulgare L. (1753)

Common barley (lat.Hordéum vulgáre) is a herbaceous plant, a species of the genus Barley (Hordeum) of the Cereals family (Poaceae). An important agricultural crop, one of the oldest cultivated plants in the history of mankind (the plant began to be cultivated about 10 thousand years ago).

Barley grain is widely used for food, technical and feed purposes, including in the brewing industry, in the production of pearl barley and barley groats. Barley is one of the most valuable concentrated animal feed, as it contains complete protein and is rich in starch. In Russia, up to 70% of barley is used for fodder purposes.

Botanical description

It is an annual plant with a height of 30-60 cm, in cultivated varieties - up to 90 cm. Stems are straight, glabrous.

Leaves up to 30 cm long and 2-3 cm wide, flat, smooth, with ears at the base of the plate.

Forms a spike with an awn about 10 cm long; each spikelet is one-flowered. Spikes are four- or hexagonal, up to 1.5 cm wide, with a flexible axis that does not split into segments. Spikelets are collected in groups of three; all spikelets are fertile, sessile. Spikelet scales are linear subulate, drawn into a thin spine, usually exceeding them in length. The lower floral scales are ovate-lanceolate. Common barley is a self-pollinating plant, but cross-pollination is not excluded. Blooms in June - July.

The fruit is a weevil. Fruiting in July - August.

Distribution and ecology

Wild common barley grows from North Africa to Tibet.

Cultivated barley often runs wild near sowing sites, often found as an accidentally grown plant near roads, on embankments.

History

Barley belongs to the oldest cultivated plants.Like wheat, it was cultivated during the Neolithic Revolution in the Middle East over 10 thousand years ago. Wild barley is distributed over a wide area from Crete and North Africa in the west to the Tibetan mountains in the east.

In Palestine, barley was eaten no later than 17 thousand years ago. The ancient Jews sowed it at the end of autumn, the harvest of barley began earlier than the harvest of wheat, during second day unleavened, that is, on the 16th day of the month of Nisan. The peoples neighboring with the Jews were also engaged in the processing of barley in significant quantities. For three years the king of the sons of Ammon paid tribute to Jotham, king of Judah, and annually sent ten thousand barley cows to Judea, that is, more than eight thousand and a half-quarters. Barley flour was one of the sacrificial utensils. Barley bread was tough and heavy and was considered less nutritious than wheat bread, but healthier, and made up the common food of the common people. Under King Solomon, a lot of barley was sent abroad. King Solomon sent woodcutters to the woodcutters who worked on the construction of the temple in Lebanon: "... wheat twenty thousand cows, and barley twenty thousand cows ...". Barley was also used to feed horses and mules. In times of need, barley was sold at a very high price.

The oldest samples of cultivated barley are found in Syria and belong to one of the most ancient Neolithic cultures of the pre-ceramic period. It is also found in ancient Egyptian tombs and in the remains of lake pile structures (that is, in the Stone and Bronze periods). Barley spread to Europe from Asia Minor in the IV-III millennia BC. NS. By many historical monuments, one can judge about the widespread distribution of barley in a distant time. In particular, it appeared on the Korean Peninsula no later than 1500-850 BC. NS. It is possible that barley was introduced into cultivation in different localities independently. In Central Europe, barley culture became universal already in the Middle Ages. In the countries of America, barley is a relatively new crop, which was brought by settlers from Europe in the 16th-18th centuries. Barley could penetrate into Russia from Asia through Siberia or the Caucasus and has long been of great importance as a food product for those areas where the cultivation of other breads was impossible or difficult.

Russia, Russia	14,0	15,4	20,4
France France	11,3	10,3	11,8
Germany Germany	10,4	10,3	11,6
Australia Australia	8,2	7,5	9,2
Ukraine Ukraine	6,9	7,6	9,0
Canada Canada	8,0	9,2	7,1
Spain Spain	6,0	10,1	6,9
United Kingdom United Kingdom	5,5	7,1	6,9
Turkey Turkey	7,1	7,9	6,3
USA USA	4,8	4,7	3,8
World production

Common barley in culture

The growing season, depending on the variety, is 60-110 days. In cultivation, barley is less whimsical than other cereals. The seeds can germinate at temperatures from +1 to +3 ° C and ripen at +18 ° C. Early ripening varieties are grown in the far north and high in the mountains (up to 4500 m).

Winter barley is a younger crop than spring barley (approximately 2000 years). In many countries, there is a transition to the cultivation of winter barley. Romania and Bulgaria have almost completely switched to autumn sowing, more than half of the area in Germany and France, a lot of winter barley is sown in Hungary and Poland. In general, in the world crop production, winter barley accounts for about 10%.

In Russia, barley has long been of great importance as a food product for those areas where the culture of other breads is impossible. At the beginning of the 20th century, among all plants cultivated in the Russian Empire, barley occupied the fourth place in area (slightly more than 4.5 million dessiatines, or 7.1% of the total sown area), yielding in space to rye in five, oats in three, and wheat more than doubled. In the spring wedge, it occupied the second (first - oats) place, surpassing buckwheat, millet, corn and other cultivated plants in sowing area, and in general it was sown in larger quantities on peasants than on landowners' lands.The sowing of barley, however, was far from uniform in individual areas of Russia. It occupied the largest (10-20%) area in relation to the rest of the grain in the north (more than 54% of all sown land), where it displaced other plants and was in the full sense of bread for the population (it was called there, like rye in the south, zhit). The northwest and especially the west produced the best brewing varieties. In the south, it was cultivated for livestock feed and for export. In the central and eastern provinces of the Russian Empire, barley was rarely cultivated, in particular, it was least widespread in the provinces of Penza and Ryazan (less than 0.1% of the area).

Chemical composition of grain

Ripe grains contain up to 15.8% proteins, 76% carbohydrates, 3-5% fats, 9.6% fiber, enzymes, vitamins of group B, D, E, A.

Economic value and application

Common barley is one of the most important cultivated plants. Of all cereals, it goes the farthest to the north (in the Arkhangelsk province of the Russian Empire it was the dominant "bread").

Barley grain is used for the preparation of flour, cereals (pearl barley and barley groats), for livestock feed. Barley is used in the production of beer and kvass, in the manufacture of coffee substitutes. Barley is also used for the production of various whiskeys, for medical and cosmetic purposes.

Barley is not eaten directly by humans, but mostly turns into cereals, the best variety of which is called pearl barley. Barley is rarely ground into flour for baking purposes, since it does not give a porous dough that could be completely baked. In some areas of Finland, bread ("rieska") is made from barley alone, and it is baked on a birch bark. Usually, when baking, if barley flour is used, rye or wheat flour is mixed with it.

Barley beer was arguably the oldest human drink in the Neolithic era. Later, it was used instead of currency for settlements with employees. As a brewing material, barley is highly prized and almost irreplaceable.

In ancient Egypt, not only beer, but also bread was prepared from barley. Egyptians called barley jt (pronunciation probably yit) or šma (shema). In the latter version, barley was also a symbol of Upper Egypt. The Sumerians called barley akiti... In the book of Deuteronomy, barley is listed among the seven fruits of the promised land, and the Book of Numbers describes the sacrifices of the Israelites offered by barley.

In ancient Greece, barley was used in the sacred rites of the Eleusinian mysteries. The goddess Demeter also had the name or title of the mother of barley. Pliny the Elder described the recipe for barley porridge in his Natural History. In Tibet, barley flour, tsampa, came into use no later than the 5th century. BC e .. In ancient Rome, gladiators were called hordearii (lat. hordearii) - "eating barley", or "barley eaters", or "barley men", because barley, which contributed to a rapid set of muscle mass, was one of the main parts of their daily meal ... In medieval Europe, rye and barley bread was the food of the peasants, while wheat bread was consumed only by the upper classes. Only by the 19th century did potatoes gradually replace barley.

As fodder for livestock, barley is used mainly in the southern regions and in this respect is of great economic importance. In Central Asia, in Eastern Transcaucasia, Arabia and many other places, fodder barley as fodder for horses everywhere replaces oats, which burns out there in the hot summer, and on this fodder the Arabian and the Karabakh horse close to it were created and hardy Asian steppe horses live. Straw and chaff of barley also serve as fodder, and chaff is mainly steamed or scalded to prevent various diseases of animals (mainly colic) from rough barley awns; it is advised not even to use it in feed at all, but to leave it to peat in compost heaps.

In modern Russia, barley is sown everywhere in the areas of agriculture.

In Siberia, barley roasted and crushed into flour, called pusher, consumed with tea. To do this, a layer of tolkan was poured on the bottom of the cup, pressed with a finger to the bottom and salted, then tea was poured; sometimes another piece of butter was added. Once put, the tolkan went for a few cups of tea, and then was eaten.

For medicinal purposes, common barley has long been used in folk medicine. Malt extract is used for bronchitis and for feeding young children. They drink it for metabolic disorders, expressed in the appearance of skin rashes, boils, etc.

Taxonomy

Taxonomic position

Taxonomic schema (according to the APG II System):

17 more families, including Sedge, Rogozovye

about 15 more tribes, including Feather grass, Oat, Bluegrass

Two-row barley, Maned barley, Mouse barley and other types

order Mallow, or Bluegrass

subfamily Bluegrass

genus Barley

Department Flowering, or Angiosperms

family Cereals, or Bluegrass

tribe Wheat

dbl Common barley

44 more orders of flowering plants

five more subfamilies, including Bamboo, Rice

26 more genera, including Rye, Zhitnyak, Wheatgrass, Wheat

Intraspecific taxa

The following subspecies are distinguished:

• Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum - Wild barley
  • basionym
• Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare - Two-row barley
  • - Six-row barley

Two widespread cultivated varieties of common barley are two-row barley, native to Asia Minor and six-row barley, originating from East Asia. In both varieties, spikelets sit on three sides of the spikelet, forming six longitudinal rows along the spike. However, in two-row barley, like in wild barley, only two of the six spikelets sitting next to each other are fertile, of which caryopses develop; two rows on both sides of the ear. In a six-rowed barley, all six spikelets sitting side by side are fertile, and a ripe ear has six rows of caryopses.

Cultural significance

According to the Sunnah, the Prophet Muhammad believed that at-talbin or talbina - a stew of barley flour with milk or honey - "soothes the heart of the patient and takes with it part of (his) sorrow." Avicenna, in his 11th century work "The Canon of Medicine", wrote about the healing effects of barley water, soup and broth against fever. Roasted barley tea is still popular in Asia.

In English folklore, John Barleyseed from the eponymous folk song is the personification of barley, as well as beer and whiskey made from it. The song depicts John suffering humiliation, assault, and ultimately death, corresponding to the various stages of barley cultivation. The image of John Barleyseed can be associated with the ancient gods of Germanic-Scandinavian mythology Mimir or Kvasir.

Notes (edit)

1. ↑ For the conventionality of indicating the class of monocotyledons as a superior taxon for the group of plants described in this article, see the section "APG Systems" of the article "Monocots".
2. ↑ Saltini A. I semi della civilta: frumento, riso e mais nella storia delle societa umane / Prefazione di Luigi Bernabò Brea. - Bologna: Avenue Media, 1996 .-- 182 p.
3. ↑ Encyclopedia "Around the World". Common barley.
4. ↑ Gubanov et al., 2002, p. 259.
5. ↑ Zohary D., Hopf M. Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley. - 3rd ed. - Oxford University Press, 2000. - P. 59-69. - ISBN 0198503571.
6. ↑ Samuel 21: 9; Fourth Kings 4:42
7. ↑ Chronicles 27: 5
8. ↑ Corresponds to approximately 1,785,000 liters.
9. ↑ Judges 7:13, Samuel 17:28, John 6: 9-13.
10. ↑ Chronicles 2:10
11. ↑ I Kings 4: 26-28
12. ↑ 4 Kings 7: 1
13. ↑ Barley // Bible Encyclopedia of Archimandrite Nicephorus. - M., 1891-1892.
14. ↑ Crawford G. W., Gyoung-Ah Lee Agricultural Origins in the Korean Peninsula. - 2003. - Vol. 77, No. 295. - P. 87-95. - ISSN 0003-598X.
15. ↑ Production of barley in the world. Barley producing countries
16. ↑ Varieties of spring barley
17. ↑ AgroAtlas. Six-row cultivated barley.
18. ↑ Corresponds to almost 5 million hectares.
19. ↑ Barley, in agriculture and trade // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb., 1890-1907.
20. ↑ S. A. Nevsky Genus 213. Barley - Hordeum // Flora of the USSR: in 30 tons / hl. ed. V. L. Komarov. - L.: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1934. - T. 2 / ed. volumes by R. Yu. Rozhevits, B. K. Shishkin. - S. 728 .-- 778, XXXIII p. - 5175 copies.
21. ↑ Barley // Small Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 4 volumes - St. Petersburg, 1907-1909.
22. ↑ Pellechia Th. Wine: the 8,000-year-old story of the wine trade. - Philadelphia: Running Press, 2006 .-- P. 10. - ISBN 1560258713.
23. ↑ Fernandez F. A. Civilizations: Culture, Ambition and the Transformation of Nature. - 2001. - P. 265. - ISBN 0743216504.
24. ↑ Sautman B., Dreyer J. T. Contemporary Tibet: politics, development, and society in a disputed region. - Armonk, New York: Sharpe, 2006 .-- P. 262 .-- ISBN 0765613549.
25. ↑ Pliny the Elder... Natural History, XVIII, 14: Latin Text
26. ↑ Curry A. The Gladiator Diet // Archeology Magazine. - November / December 2008. - Vol. 61, No. 6. - a Publication of the Archaeological Institute of America
27. ↑ McGee H. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. - Unwin, 1986. - ISBN 0-04-440277-5.
28. ↑ Roden C. The Book of Jewish Food. - Knopf, 1997. - P. 135. - ISBN 0394532589.
29. ↑ Tolkan // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb., 1890-1907.
30. ↑ Blinova K.F. and others. Botanical-pharmacognostic dictionary: Ref. allowance / Ed. K.F. Blinova, G.P. Yakovleva. - M .: Higher. shk., 1990 .-- S. 264 .-- ISBN 5-06-000085-0.
31. ↑ Barley - Hordeum
32. ↑ Hadith. Volume 7, Book 71, Number 593: (Narrated 'Ursa)
33. ↑ Sunna.su | Talbina. Retrieved April 14, 2013. Archived April 18, 2013.
34. ↑ Muslimka is a site for Muslim women. Retrieved April 14, 2013. Archived April 18, 2013.
35. ↑ Scully T., Dumville D. N. The art of cookery in the Middle Ages. - Boydell Press, 1997. - P. 187-188. - ISBN 0-85115-430-1.
36. ↑ barley tea | The world of tea. Retrieved April 14, 2013. Archived April 18, 2013.
37. ↑ de Vries Ad. Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery. - Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1976. - P. 34-35. - ISBN 0-7204-8021-3.

Literature

• S. A. Nevsky Genus 213. Barley - Hordeum // Flora of the USSR: in 30 tons / hl. ed. V. L. Komarov. - L.: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1934. - T. 2 / ed. volumes by R. Yu. Rozhevits, B. K. Shishkin. - S. 728 .-- 778, XXXIII p. - 5175 copies.
• S. A. Nevsky Materials for the knowledge of wild-growing barley // Tr. Nerd. Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences... - 1941. - Ser. I. - Issue. 5. - S. 64-255.
• Gubanov I.A. and others. 165. Hordeum vulgare L. - Common barley // Illustrated guide to plants of Central Russia. In 3 volumes - M .: T-in scientific. ed. KMK, Institute technologist. issl., 2002. - T. 1. Ferns, horsetails, lyes, gymnosperms, angiosperms (monocots). - S. 259 .-- ISBN 8-87317-091-6.

Wheat and barley

The study of the dwellings of the tribal settlement of Kolomiyshchina and Vladimirovka provided new materials for characterizing the economic life of Tripillya. Khvoiko also discovered the remains of cultivated plants in the excavations of Trypillian monuments and, in his report at the XIII Archaeological Congress, raised the issue of agriculture in Tripoli and its local origin.

What data do archaeologists now have on this issue? During the excavation of the Kolomiyshchina-I settlement, we noticed that the slightly burnt plaster, from which the base of the walls, the floor, the stove and other parts in the Trypillian house are built, contains a vegetable impurity in the clay mass in the form of grains and small parts of cereal ears. As a result of special studies of this kind of plant imprints, burbot of traces of burnt-out grain, chaff, cake, wheat, barley and millet were found. So we found another convincing proof that the tribes that lived in the Dniester-Dnieper basin during the Tripillya era were hoe farming and cultivated wheat, barley and millet.

Vessels with black and red painting

Vessels with black painting

Excavations at the settlement of Kolomiyshina-II helped us find out how the ancient Trypillians cultivated the land and reaped the grain harvest. We found a large bone sickle made from the shoulder blade of a bull or cow. With this sickle, the ancient reaper cut the ears. But, apparently, the method of cutting ears with flint plates, which were inserted into the bone or wooden base of the sickle, was more common.

Neither straw nor whole ears were found in the admixture of clay coating. At the same time, among the prints of the chaff, there are often imprints of grains, sometimes not even free from spikelet films. This gives some reason to assume that, firstly, during the harvest, it is possible that not the entire plant was removed completely, but only one ears, without straw, and secondly, the threshing method, obviously, was such that, although the ears were crushed into small parts, but at the same time the grain was not completely threshed and was not cleaned of films, as a result of which a significant amount of it remained in the chaff, in the cake and, together with the vegetable impurity, fell into the clay coating.It is possible that the ears were simply rubbed between the palms or trampled underfoot, as it is still practiced among some peoples.

If the method of threshing among the ancient Trypillians is still not explained, then the method of processing grain can be established with sufficient clarity. The usual tools for grinding grain were stone grain grinders: each one consists of two parts - a lower wide slab-shaped stone with an upper smoothed, often slightly concave working side and an upper small stone (pestle) of a spherical shape. The most common local varieties of stone: granite, gneiss, sandstone, etc., served as the material for the grain grinders.

Reconstruction of Trypillian dwellings

In Trypillian dwellings, grain graters are usually located not far from large vessels that served as containers for storing supplies. They are placed on the opposite wall from the stove or near the stoves, next to large bowls and pots that served as utensils for cooking. On the model of ancient Trypillian dwellings (Sushkovka, Popudnya), next to a grain grater placed on a special elevation, there is a female figurine bent over a grain grater and grinding grain. These models told us about how the Trypillian women turned grain into flour.

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