The old name of a wooden box for storing grain: a chest or a souchek?

Since people began to regularly cultivate fields and eat cereals for food, it became necessary to build reliable storage facilities in which to keep the harvest. Everywhere, bread was stored in special buildings, where optimal conditions were maintained. The barns were a compulsory supplement to the peasant way of life, the life and work of the tillers were inseparably connected with them. Folk folklore often refers to the ancient name of a wooden box for storing grain, installed in warehouse buildings. We will talk about it further.

Importance of cereals for humans

The possible reason for such a high popularity of cereals in ancient people is a sufficient content of carbohydrates, and, consequently, good saturation. This factor could serve as a good reason for the widespread cultivation of cereals.

In earlier times, the main culture, which was cultivated by peasants-farmers, was alive. This common name for whole grain bread could mean wheat, barley or rye. Therefore, buildings designed for the preservation of stocks of cereal crops, called barn. In these buildings there were special bins (the old name of a wooden box) for storing supplies.

In the barns, magical rituals and wedding rituals were often arranged. Probably, the choice of a place for carrying out the above-mentioned actions was not accidental: for a husbandman he was closely connected with the image of fertility.

Storage for cereal stocks

Grain was everywhere held in high barns, which were built from various materials, depending on the geography of the location - natural stone, wood, clay, adobe. From inside the buildings were divided into compartments.

Amber grain was stored at first in a variety of utensils - wooden vats, tubs, hollowed logs from the logs, and also woven from twigs and clay-coated baskets. Later in the granaries began to put a separate box for storing grain, the ancient name of which is still found in Russian folk tales or floorboards.

Cereal seedlings

The main concern of the peasant, after the harvest has been harvested, is his safety. It was necessary to protect it from moisture, frost, heat and rodents, which could destroy all the reserves. In order to provide the necessary conditions, peasants poured grain crops into the chest (this is the old name for a wooden box for storing grain).

Later, the most reliable and convenient part of the storage was recognized as a specially designated place in the barn: suseki (zaseki, zakroma). Special attention was paid to fire safety when building a place for grain. That is why it was not customary to pour the entire crop into one storage facility. Bread barns stood a little way from the main farmstead. The most terrible was the destruction in the event of a fire of seed stocks. Having saved the grain for planting, it was possible to hope for a harvest.

Where was the grain stored?

Which word - "chest", "close" or "soussek" - is the defining name of the wooden box for storing grain? Let's try to understand.

• Casket - a wooden box of a special form, where you can store different things, as well as grain.
• Susek - a fenced off chest of tightly fitted boards, serves for the excavation of cereal crops or flour. The related word "compartment".
• Zakrom - synonymous with susek, originates from the "edge", "edge".

It turns out that all these definitions - the old name of a wooden box for grain.

In the construction of these storage areas, uniform design principles were applied. An important condition was their production from close-fitting boards to avoid spilling supplies. The bottom, for the convenience of moving loose products, could be tilted. Ventilation elements could also be present to ensure air circulation.

Kolobok

The ancient name of a wooden box for storing grain , as we have already said, is often found in folk tales, proverbs, sayings. Most often, Kolobok is remembered, which the old woman baked from a dough, implicated in the fact that she "scraped along the suseks." Scrape in a large store for the storage of bulk products can only be leftovers of flour or grain. The narrator demonstrates that these peasants lead a very poor way of life.

In Russian folklore, there are many proverbs and sayings related to the definition of a storage box:

• The beginning of summer - there are no bread in the bins.
• Full of suseki from a rich man.
• If the snow is snowy in the winter, then the sliver will be smooth.
• Not the bread that is in the field, but the bread that is in the cider .

Over time, in any language, old words are replaced with new ones or completely out of use. This is a natural process, and it can happen for various reasons. In this case, these words are gradually being ousted from speech because in the modern world boxes are not universally used where grain is stored. Although archaisms do not disappear entirely from conversational speech - obsolete expressions can be found in historical materials and works.