The collection of the first photos (1853) of Mount Athos by Caranza and Labbé recently auctioned by Sotheby’s is full of interesting images. This is a threshing floor outside Xenofontos. A threshing floor is a specially flattened outdoor surface, usually circular and paved and was used for the act of separating out grain by the feet of people or oxen and still later with the use of a flail. In Greek the word for threshing floor is vordonario.Almost twenty years later, in 1870,  the circular threshing floor is still present in front of the workershouse with the large monastery of Xenophontos in the background.The workershouse is still in its place, I am not sure about the floor.Also near Sografou there were agriculture activities in the 19th century (1870). Here lies the threshing floor near the little workers village (now in ruins) beneath the monastery. In these days there are no more grain or cornfields on Athos.

Threshing floors are still in use, such as this one in Santorini, Greece.

Herman Voogd