10 curious things from the distant past (18 photos)

In the distant past, in everyday life and in people's everyday life there were many useful and unknown objects. We continue the theme of our ancestors' things. Nowadays, we can't immediately guess what this or that device was used for. Take a look!





1. A long board with cross ribs and a handle



This is a ruble. The household item was used for beating (washing), ironing linen and rolling leather





On one side of the wooden plate, transverse rounded scars were cut, the other remained smooth, and sometimes decorated with intricate carving. In different regions, the scars could differ either in the features of the shape or in their unique decor.

2. A chest with a slightly beveled lid, handles on the side, and closed with a secret lock



This is a headrest chest. An item for storing and transporting valuables, a kind of travel safe



Headrest chests were popular among all strata of the population. They were found in peasant huts, in the houses of tradesmen, and in the chambers of the highest nobility. Similar items could be seen even in royal chambers. The process of making chests was quite simple. Usually, artisans assembled the main part from wood and then covered it with metal strips. Often, craftsmen decorated the product with overlays.

3. Two stone disks, the base is fixed. There is a hole inside and a handle on top



These are millstones. Mills that used millstones were either manual or used animals or mechanical engines as the driving force



Millstones have been used in farming since ancient times. The surface of both millstones is covered with a special relief "pattern" - the so-called accordion. It is an alternation of grooves, small furrows and flat areas. Grains, falling into the opposite furrows of two stone blocks, break into smaller particles. Due to this, the process of grinding grain is ensured. A special type of fine-grained sandstone, characterized by increased hardness and strength, was considered the ideal material for the production of millstones.

4. A set of flat boards with different symbols carved on them



This is a wooden carved calendar, which could consist of one stick or several boards



A mysterious and truly clever thing. After all, wooden calendars are classified as “eternal”, they were used from generation to generation, for centuries. The principle of wooden calendars-saints is very simple: four sides with three parts give 12 months (another option is six sides, two parts). Notches mark the days, and mysterious signs mark Orthodox and agricultural holidays.

5. Figured lock





Pavlovsk locks are products that were made in the village of Pavlovo, Nizhny Novgorod province, in the 18th-19th centuries. Before the revolution, it was the center of padlock production. The most ancient type of product is the Swedish or horse lock with a screw key. The end of the key is often transformed into a complex patterned rosette, which has many artistic details and decorations.

6. A small fabric bag with drawstrings, what was it used for?



A lakomka pocket or lakomnik is a women's belt hanging pocket, a handbag, an element of folk costume



Women wore a pocket over their sarafan and put various small items or treats in it. Everyday lakomniks were embroidered with bright wool, and festive pockets were made of silk, fine cloth, brocade or chintz.

7. What is this object that looks like an awl



In Rus', this object was called a pisalo — a rod made of metal, bone or wood, which was used for writing. In different eras, they wrote either on tablets made of soft clay, which was then fired, which allowed the inscription to be preserved for a long time. Or on wax-coated tablets. Letters were scratched on them. This option allowed you to quickly correct or erase what was written.

8. What is this old bench with inscriptions applied to it?



A bench for a game called "Gund-Gund-Kal" or "Labyrinth", only one such bench has survived to this day. It is in the Adygea Museum. This game was intended to train strategic thinking, and it involved two opponents, with spectators standing around. One attacked, using a special stick, and the other tried to repel the opponent's attack. If the attacker met with worthy resistance, then the attack was successfully repelled.

9. What was this metal device used for?



This item is intended for beekeeping, it was called - wax foundation rollers. Wax foundation is an artificial base for building honeycombs, which is a thin rectangular sheet of wax with extruded cell bottoms. The wax foundation helped bees build honeycombs, which led to faster development of the bee colony and allowed to increase honey production. The rollers were invented and manufactured in his workshop, located in the Kursk region, by the inventor Vladimir Ivanovich Lomakin in 1887. Subsequently, he established mass production of rollers, which allowed to refuse imports.

10. What was this wooden form used for?



Composite wooden block for felting boots



The block consists of two or three rectangular wedges and a toe-block. It was intended for stretching the felt boot blank onto it for subsequent rolling, drying and shaping.