Sickle

Modern crescent is a tool for cutting of small quantities of cereals and grass. It consists of a tapered forward to the concavely curved blade (usually steel ) with a wooden handle. It differs from the scythe through the smaller blade and shorter handle. Grass sickles are short, but very strongly bent.

History

To see scarf: scarf ( pre-and early history )

The sickle is next to the harvest knife is one of the oldest agricultural implements. The oldest sickles were found in the Levant, where they already served in Protoneolithikum for cutting of wild cereals or grasses. The use of the characteristic " sickle gloss " but arises not only in the cutting of grain (including grass, reeds or leaves). They were made of bent wood or antler pieces, in which one has glued some flint blades with resin or similar material.

With advent of bronze sickles were made ​​from this material.

Since Steenberg 1943 there are two crescent shapes:

A), so that the emphasis is the hook sickle ( sickle angular ), in which the sheet is evident just from the booklet on one side

B) the arc sickle (balanced sickle ), in which the sheet bends at the stitching on the right or obtuse angle, so that the weight is evenly distributed on both sides

Type B emerged in the La Tène period, spread among the Romans and became common in the Middle Ages.

From the Tisza culture ( Szegvár - Tüzköves, co. Szentes ) a clay statuette of a man is known, holding a sickle. It was interpreted by the excavators as "Sickle God." Even the ancient Greeks, the sickle was the ultimate symbol of agriculture, which is why it was an attribute of the goddess Demeter. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that the Druids used golden sickles for rituals.

In various archaeological cultures in the sickle is a grave goods, particularly in the graves where, in addition to the human body and a horse was buried.

Heraldry

The sickle is to be found as a common figure in heraldry in many municipal coat of arms. In describing the position and direction of the blade must be reported. In the tincture otherwise all heraldic colors are possible. The stem is often colored in gold. The sickle is the coat of arms represent agriculture and corn sheaf often accompanies the crest figure. The sickle in the coat of arms must not be confused with the billhook.

Sickle as a symbol

As a political symbol it is presented together with the hammer in the arms and also in flags. Crossed with each other hammer and sickle are a symbol of the workers 'and peasants' state in real existing socialism, for example on the flag of the former Soviet Union.

  • See main article: Hammer and Sickle
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