Ancient harvester from Gaul

While working on another project I wound up researching a harvester invented in Gaul (modern day Belgium). It was called a “vallus”, Latin for pallisade, due to it’s resemblance to a wall of sharpened logs. It consisted of an open-fronted rectangular box mounted on a transverse axle with spoked wheels. To the front of the box they attached sharpened stakes like a comb or long sickle bar teeth. It was pushed from behind by a mule or ox and the two harness poles extended past the animal to a driver who (presumably wearing sturdy sandals) walked behind and set the height of the implement. as the machine was pushed forward the stalks of the grain were forced between the teeth and the heads of the grain were “stripped” by someone pushing them back with a sort of flat rake. This left nearly all the straw to fall fallow.
The Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote about it before he was killed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It never really caught on with the Romans for several reasons. First, their fields were usuallly smalller. Second, they focused more on cash crops like olives and grapes. Most importantly there isn’t much need for labor saving devices when you have abundant slave labor available. The idea faded away until the Industrial Revolution made farm labor scarce.
A friend in Hungary, whose last name just so happens to be Vallus, sent me a link to pictures of a reconstruction made and tested in Moselle. I will try to post some, or the link if anyone is interested. IIRC there are also a bunch of horse and mule photos there as well.
Happy New Years to All,
Randi Richert
AKA P.Clodius Secundus, Legio III Cyrenaica “Caesar’s Conquerors”