The Grain Threshing Board in the Museum and Ethnographic Everyday Life

Abstract

The threshing board (kevri) is an ancient agricultural implement used for threshing grain. Traces of the threshing board worldwide appear as early as the Neolithic era. The remains of 8,000-year-old threshing boards have been discovered in the Near East and the Balkans. The culture of the threshing board was highly developed in Georgia. The tool was known in numerous historical and ethnographic regions of the country, including Kartli, Kakheti, Svaneti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Racha, and Ajara. Primarily, two types of threshing boards were utilized: composite (two-boarded) and non-composite (single-boarded). Two main varieties are distinguished: Georgian and Trialetian. Threshing boards were predominantly crafted from spruce and pine wood.  The completed threshing board was taken out to the threshing floor (kalo) to thresh wheat. The threshing floor was arranged in an elevated location—on the flat roof of a house, in the yard, or near the field. A single horse or a yoke of oxen would be harnessed to the board. A man or a woman stood on top of it, driving the animals with a goad. The board would rotate, thereby threshing the wheat. Since ancient times, the threshing floor was considered a sacred place; no one would touch an item left there. The threshing board itself was also regarded as a sacred implement. The threshing board was a widely used agricultural tool in Ajara. Ethnographic materials confirm that threshing boards were manufactured in the Mariti [Mareti] and Chvani gorges up until the 1930s. The threshing boards made here, along with wooden household items and utensils, were transported to Ardahan for sale. In Ajara, grain crops were gradually replaced by other cultures, particularly maize, the widespread cultivation of which began around the second half of the 19th century. This shift led to the cessation of threshing board production. Gradually, the use of the threshing board also came to an end.

 Today, the threshing board is preserved only within museum spaces.