mulsA - museo di storia dell'agricoltura - ETS
Fondato a Milano nel 1971
THE BIRTH OF AGRICULTURE AND THE DOMESTICATION OF PLANTS​​​​​
The section opens with a large panel entitled “From Predation to Domestication”, which summarises the conditions and ecological mechanisms that triggered the transition of human populations from a survival strategy based on hunting and gathering to one centred on cultivation and animal husbandry. This is followed by a large photograph of a forest fire, recalling how agriculture arose thanks to the ecological effects of fires deliberately set by hunter-gatherer communities. Displayed here are two hoes of African origin, similar to those used in the Neolithic, carbonised seeds, a model and fragment of a manual stone mill, and Neolithic flint blades. The second part of the exhibition space illustrates the phenomenon of plant domestication through a panel accompanied by two display cases, one containing maize ears and the other wheat ears. Completing the exhibition are examples of hulled and naked wheats, a large showcase illustrating the phylogeny of wheat through samples of ears of different species, and a series of transparent cylinders containing whole plants of wild, proto-domesticated and fully domesticated wheats.
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​Panoramic view of the exhibition space “The Birth of Agriculture and the Domestication of Plants”
THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS
The first section also explores the concept of domestication and the chronology of the principal species of domesticated mammals and birds, while illustrating the ethological traits that predisposed certain wild animals to domestication.
Dominating the space is a reproduction of a detail from the “Hall of the Bulls” at Lascaux (France), depicting an aurochs, ancestor of domestic cattle, accompanied by horses and deer. This cave painting, dating from the Late Palaeolithic, represents the complex relationship between hunter-gatherers and large wild animals: creatures regarded as indispensable prey but also feared, admired and venerated, a relationship which gradually evolved into a mutualistic symbiosis through domestication.
At the centre of the exhibition space is the skull of a Maremmana breed cow, discovered at an archaeological site in the Monti della Tolfa (Italy). The skull is compared with that of an aurochs, reproduced in a life-sized photograph, highlighting the morphological changes—especially in the shape of the horns—brought about by domestication. A model of a Alpine Grey breed cow illustrates the morphology of modern dairy cattle.
The third panel introduces the concept of the “domestication syndrome”, namely the behavioural, physiological and morphological changes that distinguish domestic animals from their wild ancestors. A visual example is provided by the comparison between the skulls of a wild boar and a pig. Also displayed are two symbolic artefacts: a reproduction of the Shahr-i Sokhta cup (3200 BC), decorated with an animated sequence of a goat, and a votive bronze figurine representing a zebu (2nd millennium BC). Above them, a spotted calf hide illustrates the importance of skins and coat colour patterns, traits acquired through domestication.
The fourth panel is devoted to the “multifunctionality” of domestic animals, listing the various roles they have played within human civilisations. Beneath it is displayed an ethnographic artefact: a weaving pin in llama bone, originating from Bolivia.
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Panoramic view of the exhibition space “The Domestication of Animals”
HISTORY OF THE PLOUGH
​​​The exhibition space opens with two large images devoted to the earliest traces of ploughing and to the oldest plough discovered in Italy. These are: the reproduction of a ploughed surface, created for ritual funerary purposes in the megalithic area of Saint-Martin-de-Corléans (Aosta), dating from the late 5th millennium BC; and that of a wooden plough unearthed in the Lavagnone Basin and now housed in the Civic Archaeological Museum of Desenzano (Brescia), dated between 2048 and 2010 BC. Displayed next are five ploughs and a plough cart, all implements still in use at the end of the last century, illustrating the millennia-long evolution of this instrument: from the symmetrical Neolithic ard plough to the double iron plough, via the one wheel plough, the wheeled plough, the mouldboard plough, and finally the reversible plough. The space is completed by two panels and two casts depicting scenes of ploughing, documented in the rock engravings of Val Camonica, dating from between the 3rd and the mid-1st millennium BC. Alongside the reproductions of the engravings is displayed an axe/hoe from New Guinea, with a wooden handle and polished stone blade, still in use in modern times and virtually identical to those used by Neolithic farmers.
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Exhibition space dedicated to the “History of the Plough”: panoramic view
​​ANIMAL TRACTION: THE YOKE, THE TRAVOIS AND THE CART
This exhibition space traces the origins and evolution of animal traction through a collection of yokes from various Italian regions, a reconstruction of a Neolithic travois, and a cast of a rock engraving depicting a four-wheeled cart with spoked wheels drawn by horses. On the basis of traction-related bone pathologies observed in the fossil remains of domestic cattle, it is thought that the yoke was devised between the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 4th millennium BC in northern Mesopotamia; from there its use rapidly spread across the Fertile Crescent and into the Mediterranean countries. Archaeological evidence suggests that the wheel, by contrast, originated with the invention of the potter’s wheel in the 5th millennium BC, within the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture in present-day Ukraine. The idea of using the wheel for transport also developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppes, where intense cultural and commercial exchanges took place among peoples with different yet complementary lifestyles and productive economies. From the interaction between the Palaeo-Europeans of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, skilled makers of potter’s wheels, and the Palaeo-Indo-Europeans of the Kurgan culture, there emerged, during the first half of the 4th millennium BC, the four-wheeled cart. The Kurgan pastoralists, indeed, required for their long migrations in search of good pastures, as well as for their trading activities, a more efficient means of transport than sledges to carry household goods and merchandise. The cart then required only a few centuries to reach Mesopotamia.
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Collection of yokes used in Italian rural areas during the last century
PROTOHISTORIC ITALIAN AGRICULTURE
The settlement of Sorgenti della Nova (Italy), considered proto-urban in type, comprised elliptical dwellings made of thatch, artificial caves dug into the tuff, animal enclosures, storehouses, open-air hearths and ovens. It is a site of great importance, documenting the agricultural activities of protohistoric populations of Italy, characterised by the cultivation of cereals and pulses and the rearing of sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. The presence of no fewer than five ovens for bread-making and food preparation, together with animal enclosures and storage facilities for foodstuffs, attests to the intensity of both farming and livestock-raising activities, which were in any case always associated with the hunting of wild animals. The exhibition space presents a model of a hut and one of an oven referring to the proto-urban village of Sorgenti della Nova.
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Left: half-scale model of a shepherds’ hut still in use in the Viterbo area in the 1980s. This hut is directly comparable to protohistoric huts whose traces were uncovered during archaeological excavations at the proto-urban settlement of the Late Bronze Age (9th–11th century BC) at Sorgenti della Nova (Farnese, Viterbo). Right: life-sized reproduction of a protohistoric oven also discovered at the archaeological site of Sorgenti della Nova.
ETRUSCAN AGRICULTURE
This space displays copies of several Etruscan votive bronzes of great significance for the documentation of Etruscan agriculture, as well as a life-sized copy of a cinerary urn depicting an Etruscan farmer defending himself from Roman military aggression by brandishing, in place of a weapon proper, the wooden plough from which he has removed the stilt.
A display case also contains a series of domestic ceramics in which the influence of cultural and commercial contacts with the Greek world is evident. In the rural context, however, these coexist with traditional, coarser forms of pottery intended for everyday use.
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Left: reproduction of a bronze model of an agricultural cart, from a votive deposit of the 3rd–2nd century BC, Melona, Bolsena (Viterbo). Right: reproduction of a bronze model of a plough, from a votive deposit of the 3rd–2nd century BC, Talamone, Orbetello (Grosseto).
ROMAN AGRICULTURE
This section presents several panels reproducing scenes of cereal, vine and olive cultivation from various contexts of the Roman Empire. A display case contains a series of artefacts on loan from the Museum of Roman Civilisation in Rome. These are casts of: a sickle, a billhook, a small steelyard, a relief with satyrs treading grapes, another depicting a cutler’s workshop, together with a yoke and a plough.
Of particular significance is the cast of a relief dating from the 1st century AD, depicting the tracing of the sulcus primigenius during the act of foundation of the city of Aquileia, which occurred in the 2nd century BC.
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​​​Left: partial view of the exhibition space; right: cast of a relief depicting the tracing of the “sulcus primigenius” during the foundation of the city of Aquileia
PLOUGHING DIORAMA
​​​​​The pair of Chianina breed cattle, a breed typical of central Italy, recalls the white cattle of the Roman era. The coupling between animals and plough is secured by a long withers yoke, suited to large-sized cattle. The attachment of the pole consists of an iron ring hanging from a bracket passing through the centre of the yoke. The throat straps are formed by two wooden blades connected by a rope to the yoke and bound together at the bottom with another rope. The symmetrical plough (discissor), of the so-called Triptolemus type, is wooden with an iron share and has no mouldboards. The stilt is made from a rough branch.
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Pair of taxidermied Chianina cattle yoked to a symmetrical plough, on loan from the Museum of Roman Civilisation
