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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A threshing-board is a wooden implement used in agriculture for the threshing process, which involves separating grain from the stalks and husks of cereal plants. It was frequently used in traditional Spanish agriculture, where the more common flail was unusual, as well as throughout the Mediterranean Sea area, before the advent of the combine harvester.

Spanish threshing-board,
general view

Bottom-side of a typical English threshing-board
using lithic flakes

Lithic flake surface detail; a threshing-board's functional area intended to shear away the stalk and husk.

Scene of traditional threshing
in the Middle East

Threshing-boards are commonly made of wood with a close to rectangular shape and a turned up front portion, reminiscent of a common sled's profile. Their bottom (ground facing) side have large numbers of lithic flakes of flint inlaid, that function to abrade and cut the cereal plants when it is slide over the threshing floor, where the piles of cereal plants are scattered. In this way, the grain is separated from the rest of the plant.