Farming

Gezer Calendar. Limestone, inscribed in Hebrew, tenth century B.C.E.

Two months for the olive harvest,
Two months for planting grain,
Two months for late planting,
One month for uprooting flax,
One month for the barley harvest,
One month for the wheat harvest and feasting,
Two months for tending vines,
One month for summer fruit.

When the first rains fell at the beginning of November, farmers began plowing their fields and planting grain. Barley, mostly grown for animals, ripened in April, several weeks ahead of wheat, and it took at least two months to harvest both crops. Two major festivals marked the harvest season, Passover (Unleavened Bread) at the beginning and Pentecost (Weeks) at the end.

The wheat harvest is now coming to an end, with harvesters cutting the stalks and binding them into sheaves. Others are busy at the threshing floor, located on a windy hillock where crops do not grow. Oxen drag a threshing board over the unbound sheaves to separate the grains from the stalks. Winnowers toss the chopped-up mixture in the air so the wind can blow the chaff to the side while the heavier grains fall straight down.

Donkeys pulling a seeder plow on a cylinder seal from Tell Suleimeh, Iraq, mid-third millennium B.C.E. The scratch plow used in Israel and Judah was similar, but lacked the seeder tube; seed was broadcast by the farmer from a basket.

Chickpeas and fava beans, along with melons, garlic, onions and leeks, are growing in small fields and garden plots. Figs are ripening, but it will be a month or more before the grapes are ready to be pressed for wine. The oil press next to the threshing floor will be idle until the olive harvest in the fall.

After the olives have been pressed for their oil and the new wine has fermented, the agricultural year will culminate in October with a joyful festival called Succoth (Booths). A few weeks later the rains will return, and the annual cycle will begin again.