Nancy Jardine Author: Pit disaster!

Monday 11 April 2022

Pit disaster!

In this case, nothing to do with disaster in a coal, or any kind of metal extraction pit.

Pits on the crannog of the priestesses in Before Beltane are grain storage pits.

For a long time it has been usual for the priestesses to store the still-husked excess grain from their harvests in deep pits, topped by a solid, tight stone cover. The priestess in charge of overseeing the food stocks is concerned that what remains in one of their pits is now beyond edible use. Nara finds herself investigating the status of it.

abandoned grain pits

The usual method of checking the pit contents is simple. A bucket is lowered down and drag-filled before being hauled back up again. The pit in question is known to be relatively empty since the last harvests were not so plentiful that both of their pits were able to be filled.

Though not one of Nara’s normally assigned duties, she takes it upon herself to go down into the pit to check the bottom levels, since the small amount the priestess shows her is mouldy. There can be more than one reason which causes the mould to form and a fermentation process to begin. Sometimes the rain seeps into the pit if the top stone seal has not remained intact. Sometimes it is the grain itself that is unable to last from year to year. And other times it's the pit construction that's faulty.

Grain storage is a delicate business. The favoured spelt wheat of the priestesses needs to have been through a first drying-off stage after harvesting, so that most of its water content is removed. Over time, a very long time, the priestesses of the sacred nemeton have acquired good experience of knowing when the condition of the grain is perfect for going down into storage.

Spelt

Sometimes, though, it is in the hands of the goddess whether their grain remains in good condition for them to retrieve it when needed, before threshing it on their circular quern stones, the resulting powdered flour ready for baking breads. Weather and the whims of the goddess can mean storage pit success, or failure.

Nara has a little adventure when she goes down into the stone lined pit. The pit shape isn’t an exact cylindrical tube because the bottom is wider than the opening at the top. Unfortunately, the pit itself isn’t in good condition because there is leakage of damp soil between the lining stones. Wynne, the old priestess in charge of the food stocks, isn’t too surprised. The fact that the priestesses live on a crannog, a man-made islet, means that the sacred nemeton pits have a relatively short life-span since there is no true ‘bedrock’ and soil movement is common after a few decades.

A new pit will have to be dug and lined but...Can Nara get back out of the pit?

Find out… in Before Beltane!