HÜTERBAUM UND TRAGESTECKEN RECHTSARCHÄOLOGISCHE ZEUGNISSE DES WEINBAUS
Legal and Archaeological Evidence of Viticulture

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the material relics related to the guarding of vineyards and the grape harvest, mainly from the angle of legal history and the ethnology of law, drawing as a source on objects preserved in museums and other collections as well as on images. The examples reach back as far as the 14th century and geographically are taken from Austria and the neighbouring Slovene, Moravian, German, Swiss and Italian (South Tyrol) territories. The author writes about how the gate of the vineyard was closed when the grapes began to ripen indicating that entry was forbidden to outsiders, as well as about the tall “guards’ posts” used for observation of the territory, the tasks of the vineyard guards trusted with protecting the area, their dress, the implements they used in their work (weapon, clapper, etc.) and their payment. In connection with the grape harvest the article also mentions the role and use of sticks with notched signs to record the performance of the harvesters and the size of the harvest.

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