MOTnews 8 (02/10/2000)

Acquisition from Morrocco!

In one of the previous issues of MOT-NEWS you could already find out we have a soft spot for bread. We even dedicated the entire museumdivision "Liermolen" to the subject. But we also work cross-cultural to discover bread and bread baking attributes. Recently we acquired new material from Tafilalt, a region in the province of Errachidia, Morocco. We now possess two saddlestones used for milling grain, a handmill, one clay baking dish and three kneading throughs.

The saddlestone is a flat, slightly concave, rough stone that is used to grind the grain by rubbing it with a rolling stone.

The clay baking dish resembles any ordinary dish but is placed upside down with the bread on top of it inside a clay oven. The kneading throughs are still used by some Moroccan women in Belgium, they are placed on the ground for more powerful kneading. We were looking for these objects with a specific reason. We plan to hold an International Bread Baking Day in the spring of 2001, where bread baking techniques from over the whole world will be demonstrated. We promise to keep you informed in the following newsletters.

Interested in the previous issues of MOT-NEWS? You can find them all together on the website (www.mot.be) under the subject heading "reading".

Another enthusiastic volunteer joined the MOT-ranks. André Berten is an allrounder who is willing to share his knowledge with the Museum. A warmhearted welcome to André! Interested as well? Do not hesitate to contact us at info@mot.be

TRUE OR FALSE

In water and windmills you can grind the grain between two big round stones who each weigh about a ton, the milling stones. When working only one of the two stones actually moves. You can read the answer in the next MOT-NEWS.

KIDS-NEWS : something to tell your children tonight Revolving buildings?

It exists, buildings that can actually make a 360° turn. It existed already a thousand years ago. We're not talking about just any building, now, we want to talk about post-mills. The oldest type of windmill is a post-mill that revolves around its centre to direct its sails to the wind. A miller didn't always have to wait until the wind shifted, he could turn his mill in the right direction.

How can you recognise such a mill? It is made entirely out of wood. The millhouse looks like a big wooden cube that revolves around its post and the base resembles a wooden pyramid. The wooden base rests upon big brick blocks, called "dice".