Last modified: 2012-03-31 by andrew weeks
Keywords: opatovice | crozier | flails | scarf |
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The flail (from Latin "flagellum", "a whip"; in French, "fléau") was a main agricultural tool before the invention of the threshing machine. Wild wheats and their relative are self-threshing, but domesticated wheats are no longer. This prevents grain loss before and, mostly, during harvest, but requires a specific threshing tool.
Given the importance of agriculture in the past and the importance of
flails in agriculture, I am surprised to see flails shown on so few flags.
The only example we seem to have on the FOTW website is Opatovice (Czech
Republic).
Ivan Sache, 15 Oct 2007