Kerbholz
A notch stick , also called notch stick , counting stick or counting stick , is an early and medieval counting list ; it was mostly used to document contractual obligations in a forgery-proof manner.
A suitable long board or stick was marked with symbols. The wood was then split lengthways or divided, so that debtors and creditors found the incisions on their half of the stick that matched at the point of separation. Usually the creditor received the longer part. When they were put back together, it was clear whether the two halves belonged together or whether one half had been manipulated afterwards . When they were folded up again, further markings could also be made by mutual agreement if necessary. In addition to wood, bones , for example , have been used since the Paleolithic ( Ishango bones ).
On a certain date ( payday ) the kerbholz was presented, compared with its counterpart and the debtor asked to pay.
Cultural history
From this counting and bookkeeping technique, the phrase “to have something wrong with” is still in use today. It literally means “to have debts” and transfer something like “are guilty”.
At the time of the Middle Ages in a Europe that was largely ignorant of writing and poor coins, the cinder block was in use from the 10th to 12th centuries. The notch was used as evidence in medieval courts. The Code Napoléon still mentions the kerbstock as a debt certificate in Art. 1333. In the Alpine countries, the kerbstock was still used in the 20th century - especially in alpine and alpine farming.
The origin of this technology remains obscure. Prehistoric artifacts that resemble the kerbstock, such as the Ishango bone, were in use over 20,000 years before the development of writing and numbers. Herodotus already reports of knotted cords (a similar technique, still preserved today in the rosary) and was probably (also) used by the Incas as an accounting system; Pliny the Elder describes the most suitable wood for notching sticks, and Marco Polo mentions in his travelogue (" Il Milione ") the use of the notching stick in the Empire of China . So-called messenger sticks were known in various cultures. Some evidence suggests that the split Kerbstock came to Central Europe from the Danube region .
Not only monetary debts were recorded by means of the notch stick. In agriculture and livestock farming, the kerbstock was used to document payments in kind (for example how many head of cattle were entrusted to a shepherd); The kerbstock served traders as a storage document; Landlords and municipalities managed their tax claims with the help of the kerbstock; The kerbstock was used for village duties such as night fire stations or the control of special usage rights (water rights). In England in the 17th century, the royal kerbstocks (the demands on the crown) circulated as "securities" - sometimes at a significant discount from their nominal value.
At the founding of the Bank of England in 1696 notched sticks were ( tallies ; see Tally man , hand counters and tally ) are placed the king in part as capital. The Bank of England worked with notched wood until 1826.
In England it was customary until the 19th century to issue tax receipts in the form of exchequer tallies . In 1834 this ancient procedure was finally abolished through a tax reform. A huge number of notch timbers had become superfluous, and on October 16, 1834 it was decided negligently to burn them in the courtyard of the Palace of Westminster , which was then caught in the flames and mostly burned down.
Traditional use
- bills
- Debt from a trade
- Tax receipts ("exchequer tallies")
- Catches (e.g. herring) by the fishing communities (e.g. on Hiddensee )
- coins won or lost while playing cards
- bread bought at the bakery
- Water rights to Suonen in Valais (Switzerland), here the notched timbers are called "Tässel"
- Paying day laborers, oblique notch = half a day, straight notch = a full day of work
In earlier centuries, notched wood was used in mining to a. to document the daily production volume, the sale of the extracted mineral resources or the wage payments. For example, the draft of a mining regulation for the Saxon mining area Berggießhübel at the end of the 15th century stipulated that two trustworthy men to record the production quantities ... cut notches at ire kerbholczer and thus mergkn how many outside pits came. The mining term " chamfer " is derived from the cutting of the wood .
See also
literature
- Michael Chatfield: 'Tally Stick', in: The History of Accounting. An International Encyclopedia, ed. v. Michael Chatfield, Richard Vangermeersch, New York a. London 1996 (Garland reference library of the humanities 1573), p. 575.
- Thomas Frenz: Kerbholz . In: Lexicon of the entire book system, 2nd edition, IV 201
- Axel Grandell: Karvstocken. En förbisedd kulturbärare, with an Engl. Summary, Ekenäs 1982.
- Further literature in the auxiliary scientific bibliographic data collection ( Memento from March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- K. Brunner: Kerbholz und Kaveln. In: Journal of Folklore. 22.1912, pp. 337-352.
- L. Carlen: On the legal use of battens in the 17th century. In: Research on legal archeology and legal folklore. 13.1991, pp. 173-177.
- Richard von Ely: Treasurer of Heinrich II, Dialogue on the Treasury, Latin and German. introduced, translated and explained by Marianne Siegrist. Zurich u. Stuttgart 1963.
- A. Friedmann: About paper money and notches of the Chinese. In: Numismatic Journal. Vienna 62.1929, p. 69ff.
- Max Gmür : Swiss farmers' brands and wood certificates. Treatises on Swiss law. Edited by Max Gmür. Bern 1917.77.
- Hilary Jenkinson: Medieval Tallies, Public and Private, Archaeologica or Miscellaneous Tracts. Society of Antiquaries of London , London 74.1924, pp. 289-351.
- H. Jenkinson: Exchequer Tallies. in: Archaeologia. Vol. 62. Oxford 1911, pp. 367-380.
- Ludolf cake book . Kerbholz in Old Europe - Between the village smithy and the treasury. In: B. Nagy, M. Sebök: ... The Man of Many Devices, Who Wandered Fully Many Ways. Festschrift f. J. Bak. Budapest 1999, pp. 303-325.
- A. Wacke, C. Baldus: Kerbholz as civil procedural evidence in Usus modernus. Research on legal archeology and legal folklore. 15.1993, pp. 369-389.
- M. Wedell: Counting. Semantic and praxeological studies on numerical knowledge in the Middle Ages (historical semantics 14). Göttingen 2011, pp. 183-313.
- K. Weule: From the notch to the alphabet, archetypes of writing. Stuttgart 1915.
Web links
- Photo of medieval cork sticks
- Messenger sticks of the Eskimos
- The Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer
- Medieval text samples
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Löscher: The Erzgebirge mining law of the 15th and 16th centuries. Part II, Erzgebirge Mountain Regulations and Mining Freedoms as well as other documents relating to mining law and mining from the 15th century. Document book 2: 1481 - 1500, Freiberg 2003, document no.750