In the traditional villages of eastern Anatolia the sowing of grain (mainly wheat and barley) begins in late autumn - from the middle of October to the middle of November. The sowing of summer crops, such as vegetables and sesame, takes place in the spring. However, late May rainfall can cause delay in crop planting in some regions, for example in parts of Ağrı, Doğubeyazıt and Erzurum. Late planting is necessary partly because of the long and harsh winter and partly due to late May rains which inundate most of the fields in early spring when seed planting would otherwise take place. In the cereal growing season April rains are very important for high yields. For example, in the Elazığ region which sees high rainfall between October and March and very little during the summer months there is an obvious detrimental effect on crop harvesting.83 Therefore, agricultural activities in these regions rely on perennial springs, streams84 and irrigation. Dry farming is also practiced in the Elazığ region because of the warmer climate of the early summer months.85 Malcolm Wagstaff86 pointed out that in the Avşan basin of Elazığ, which lies 35 km north- east of the Elazığ Plain, the cultivation of wheat by dry-farming methods is a response to annual precipitation and its distribution.
Dry farming is dependent on natural rainfall and a lack of moisture can cause crop failures. Therefore survival of dry farming requires careful management of arable land by retaining moisture in the soil in order to minimize failure or poor yield. In Anatolia one of the techniques used by traditional farmers is the fallow (Turkish: nadas) system in which every two years a specific field is left fallow in order to preserve moisture in the soil. In some specific areas half of the village fields are sown one year and the other half left fallow and 83 Wagstaff 1975: 202-203. 84 Wagstaff 1973: 202-203. 85 Zimansky 1985: 27. 86 Wagstaff 1973: 202.
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used for pasture.87 Planting the same fields in consecutive years weakens the soil, and therefore, in order to increase crop productivity fallow fields are ploughed more than once to clear the weeds. After harvesting, herds are transferred to fields from uncultivated areas and from highland pasture (Turkish: yayla) areas to graze on the stubble and thus clear the weeds and fertilise the soil. After completion of the harvest, ploughing on the cultivated fields for fallow starts in late autumn. It should be mentioned that a small, but nevertheless interesting, piece of evidence regarding ploughing in the Urartian kingdom comes from the site of Toprakkale. A bulla from Toprakkale which is in the Berlin Vorderasiatischen Museum reveals that from the city of Ardu(ni) (Mušašir) a plough ox was received: ‘A sealed receipt of a plow ox from the city of Ardu(ni)’ (CB Tk-1). Unfortunately the context of the bulla is unknown, and it is hard to say that the ox had actually been employed in ploughing.
The harvest season begins in July and continues until the end of August. Once the harvesting and threshing is completed in late autumn, in eastern Anatolia sowing begins immediately thereafter.88 Although farmers today use tractors for sowing, it was not until the middle of the 20th century that traditional rural community farmers in most parts of Anatolia and the Near East abandoned the use of light wooden ploughs or steel ploughs driven by oxen and sowing seed by hand.89
Nicholas Helburn90 states that a man and two oxen can plough about a quarter of an acre a day. In the valley of Adilcevaz on the north-west shore of Lake Van, when James Brant and Adam Gifford Glascott visited this region in 1838, they reported the agricultural practices between Erciş and Adilcevaz. Accounts of early travellers such as this give us valuable insight into pre-mechanised agriculture in the region. Brant and Glascott wrote:
‘The soil was sandy, and the crops, which the peasantry were reaping, were remarkably fine and clean, and I observed the grain was sown in drills. I learned that drill- husbandry and a careful system of agriculture was universally practised in this part of the country. A long wooden block, with a sharpened end hollowed on a slope, is drawn by two oxen, and makes a trench about 6 inches deep. A boy follows, and lets the seed fall from his hand into the trough, from whence it runs into the drill; the grain is picked over by women, and the finest heads selected for seed. After the crop is reaped the weeds are cut down and burned. Hoeing is not practised, nor from the appearance of the crops can it be required. The
87 Stirling 1965: 48 88 Yakar 2000: 172. 89 Helburn 1955: 380. 90 Helburn 1955: 380.
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fields are never irrigated; and although there had not been any rain for some months, and the soil appeared dry sand, yet the bottom of the drill was quite moist, and the people said that in ten days the seed now sown would appear above the ground’.91
Brant and Glascott stated that the success of agriculture was down to drill ploughing. Both also took note of the rich water sources of the region and the extensive vineyards, gardens, and orchards, stating that the annual yield of wheat was 20 fold, rye 50 fold, and for barley, 40 fold.92 They described the way the villagers used the wooden drill-plough, which was drawn by two oxen, and noted that this system of agriculture was widespread in this region of Anatolia.
A similar account was given by Viscount Pollington in June of 1838 when he passed through Hınıs on his way from Erzurum to Diyarbakır:
‘On our way we passed some peasants sowing wheat, which they did in a very primitive manner: the sower walking before the plough cast the grain upon the ground among the high grass and weeds, and then over all came the plough, which was drawn by eight oxen: the grain was small but very white’.93
Pollington observed that there was no preparation of soil before cultivation, this could be because of the long winters and short summers in which there was little time to prepare the soil.
In the traditional rural communities of Anatolia and the Near East, until as late as the middle of the 20th century, the harvesting of grain was commonly done manually using sickles and occasionally scythes. Likewise the harvesting of chick-peas and lentils was done with bare hands by simply cutting or pulling up the produce. The grain harvest was carried to communal threshing floors where the corn was separated from the chaff.94 The separation of the grain from the stalks was done using a special sledge, drawn by oxen or horses and donkeys.95 The crops were threshed by this sledge which consisted of a wooden board with sharpened flints set into to its underside and the board was repeatedly dragged over the crops. The sharpened flints cut the kernels from the head of grain and chopped the straw, easing the release of moisture and so allowing for better storage to feed animals during the long winter
91 Brant and Glascott 1840: 404.
92 Brant and Glascott 1840: 405-406.
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Pollington 1840: 446.
94 Helburn 1955: 381.
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months. However is should be said that there are no remains of archaeological or iconographic evidence about the use of sledge from the Urartian kingdom.
On the other hand, however, excavations on Urartian sites have recovered similar tools and equipment that were probably used by Urartian farmers. For example, iron pitchforks recovered from Toprakkale96 Dedeli97, Karmir-Blur98, Yoncatepe99, and at Ayanis100, and other tools such as ploughs, axes, hoes, and sickles at Toprakkale101 and Karmir-Blur (Figure 82).102