Contents

UST OF TLLUSTRATIONS ix

UST OF TABLES AND MAPS XIII

INTRODUCTION/PREFACE XV

1 Under the Burning Sun 3

2 Primus in arvis/First in the Fields 48

3 SickJe and Scythe/Man and Machine 93

4 The Grim Reapers 150

5 Blade ofVengeance 221

APPENDIX 1: HARVESTING CONTRACTS PROM ROMAN EGYPT

AND ITALY 271 APPENDIX 2: THE MAKTAR HARVESTER INSCRIPTION:

TEXT AND COMMENTARY 281 APPENDIX 3: THE GALLO-ROMAN REAPING MACHINES:

ICONOGRAPHIC DATA 299

ABBREVIATIONS OF SOURCES 305 TABLES 309 NOTES 313

BIBUOCRAPHY 415 INDEX 451

List of Illustrations

1.1: Alexei Venetsianov, Harvesting: Summer, 1827 5 1.2: Roman legionaries reaping: Trajan's Column, Rome, Italy 8 1.3: Elements of the harvesting labour process 12 1.4: Traditional modes of reaping on the Argive Plain, Greece, c. 1900 16 1.5: Les Tres Riches Heures of the Due de Berry: mowing in the month of

June 25 1.6: Pieter Bruegel, Aestas/Summer 35 1.7: Roman reaper with hat: Summer in a fresco from the Catacomb of San

Ponziano, Rome 36 1.8: Reaper with a conical hat: drawing from a Ptolemaic coin 36 1.9: Reaper amulet for sciatica 39 1.10: Reaper amulet 40 1.11: Reaper's finger guards 41 1.12: Reaper bringing in his sheaf: mosaic from Thebes 44 1.13: The Boglio Stele 45 1.14: The lower registers of the Boglio Stele 46

2.1: Roman Mactaris: the Forum 50 2.2: The Mal<tar Harvester inscription 52 2.3: Lettering of the Harvester inscription 60 2.4: Mrican script: the Voconrius Publius Flavius Pudens Pomponianus

inscription 61 2.5: Mrican script: Voconriu Publius Flavius Pudens Pomponianus,

Thamugadi 62 2.6: Mrican script: the Virrius Iugurtha inscription, Thamugadi 62 2.7: Mrican Scripr: the Beccut inscription, Mactaris 63 2.8: Reaping in the ecological cycle of the ile River Valley 71

x I List of Ulustrations

2.9: Harvesting contract from Roman Egypt, the Sarapion Archive, 125CE 75

2.10: The harvesters on a Minoan Vase 78 2.11: A reaping gang in Algeria, c. 1900 81

3.1: Reaping machine designed by Solomon ofWoburn, c. 1807 95 3.2: Patrick Bell's Reaper of 1826 95 3.3: First public trial of the McCormick Reaper near teele's Tavern in

1831 99 3.4: The gift of rhe ew World to the Old 100 3.5: Reapers and as isrant with carrier basket on the cornice frieze ofTomb

B, Ghirza, Tripolitania 105 3.6: The Gallo-Roman reaping machine: fragment from

Montauban-Buzenol 112 3.7: The Gallo-Roman reaping machine: fragment from Arion 114 3.8: The Gallo-Roman reaping machine: fragment from Trier 115 3.9: A reconstruction of the Gallo-Roman reaping machine 115 3.10: The Gallo-Roman reaping machine: fragment from Koblenz 116 3.11: Relieffrom the central vaulr of rhe Porre de Mars arch ar Reims 119 3.12: Detail ofReims arch relief 126 3.13a: The evolutionary development of the sickle 132-3 3.13b: The evolutionary development of the sickle 134-5 3.14: The Ridley Stripper: South Australia, mid-nineteenth century 140

4.1: Ceres harvesting grain: House oficarios, Oudna, second century CE 154

4.2: Vincent Van Gogh, Wheat Field with a Reaper, 1889 156 4.3: Pierer Bruegel, The Harvest/August, 1565 159 4.4: Reapers on a Lare Roman sarcophagus, Rome, Palazzo Marrei 160 4.5: Noble husband and wife reaping in the afterworld: tomb of ennedjem,

1280 BCE, Deir ei-Medeina, Thebes 162 4.6: Reapers on the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Rome, 359 CE 163 4.7: Tomb mosaic of the seasons: To mba della Mietitura, Isola acra,

Ostia 164 4.8: Two reapers in the field: Tomba della Mietitura, Isola acra, 0 ria 165 4.9: Reapers and pile of cut grains on the cornice frieze ofTomb B, Ghirza,

Tripolitania 166 4.10a: Coin of Amoninus Pius, Alexandria: figure ploughing 167 4.10b: Coin of Anroninus Pius, Alexandria: figure reaping 167 4.11: Relief of plough and 'carr' from Arion, Belgium 168 4.12: Reaper on late Roman lamp from Hr. es- rira, Tunisia 169

List of Illustrations I xi

4.13: Scene of reaping in the afterworld, illustrating chapter 110 of the 'Book of the Dead' 170

4.14: 4.15: 4.16:

Figure of June from the Codex Calendar of 354 174 Figure of Summer: mosaic from La Chebba, Tunisia 176 Saturn stele from Vaga-Sicca Veneria region: Saturn as Lord of the Four Seasons 177

4.17: The Abstract Calendar 179 4.18: The zodiac from the Synagogue Mosaic at Sepphoris, Israel 182 4.19: Summer and the sickle from the ynagogue Mosaic at Sepphoris,

Israel 183 4.20: Harvesters marching on a Minoan vase 185 4.21: Hoplites marching in formation on the Chigi Vase, c. 650 BCE, Proto­

corinthian vase 186 4.22: Flute-player timing the reapers: tomb of the Vizier Mereruka, Chamber

A.13: East Wall Scene 2; c. 2300 BCE, Saqqara, Egypt 187 4.23: Reaper clapping hands in rhythm with the work: tomb of the Vizier

Mereruka, Chamber A.13: East Wall Scene 2; c. 2300 BCE, Saqqara, Egypt 188

4.24: Mathew Brady: 'The Harvest of Death' at Gensyburg. July 1863 190 4.25: The Emperor Caracalla as a reaper: temple at Esna, Upper Egypt 192 4.26: Coin ofCaracalla: four youths as the seasons, Summer wielding a

sickle 193 4.27: Saturn Stele from icivibus, Algeria: the vicarious sacrifice 199 4.28: Violence and power: the reaper at work 203 4.29: A stereotype of the figure of the Grim Reaper 206 4.30: Creating of the metaphor of the Grim Reaper 208 4.31: Peasantwearingacowledcucullus 210 4.32: Peasant wearing a cowled cucullus 211 4.33: Saturn with his reaping sickle, first century CE, Rusicade, Algeria 212 4.34: Saturn-Kronos wielding reaping blade, Pompeii , Italy 212

5.1: Hammer and sickle modfs of the Soviet Union 222 5.2: The ryrant reaps: 'Jeff Davis Reaping the Harvest' 229 5.3: Tool implement kit of a Roman farm near Cologne, Roman Colonia

Agrippinensis 230 5.4: Putti/Erotes as miniature grape harvesters 236 5.5: Puni/Erotes as harvesters: Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome 236 5.6: Les Trts Riches Heures of the Due de Berry: reaping in the month of

July 238 5.7: The measurement of the field and the collection of the grain: tomb of

Mennah, Thebes 240

5.8:

5.9: 5.10: 5.11: 5.12: 5.13:

A.2.1: A.2.2: A.2.3:

xii I Li r of Illu trarions

Jules Breton, the Day of the Torche : Htt tk jean le Baptisttlu jour tk Torches 242 Priapus sraruene with locu t, J\jn Djelloula, Tuni ia 245 arum stele: dedicant with locu t, Thamugadi , Algeria 246

The sickle as an emblem of protest: demon traror in outh Africa 254 Arrival ofharve ter in the Pontine Mar hes 264 Adam and Eve as reaper and sheaver at the dawn of time: ivory plaque on a Byzantine casket, Con tantinople, tenth-eleventh century 268

Maktar Harvester in criprion 296 Maktar Harvester in cription: left side of the tele 297 Maktar Harvester in cription: right ide of the stele 298

End illustration: The author' mother assi ring in reaping and srooking opera­tions on the farm of her brother, Andrew Brown, at Everdale, Alberta, in the summer of 1939, the year before hi enli tment in the Royal Canadian Air Force. 457

List ofTables and Maps

Table 1.1: Comparative efficiency of reaping methods: early modern England 17

Table 1.2: Cereal grain reaping and mowing rates: nineteenth-century England 17

Table 3.1: Relative work efficiency (area reaped per man per day: acres per diem) 131

Table A:. Survey of modern/post- econd World War land use patterns in the Maghrib 309

Table B: Pre-Second World War cereal grain production in the Maghrib 310 Table C: Survey of modern/post-Second World War cereal grain production in

the Maghrib 311 Table D: Pre-First World War indigenous cereal grain production in

Algeria 312

Map 1.1 : Africa of the Maktar Harvester 21 Map 2.1: Roman Mactaris (Maktar) and region 49 Map 3.1: Northern Gaul: heartland of the reaping machine 110 Map 3.2: Distribution of sickle and scythe finds in late prehistoric and Roman

Gaul 128