Recognising and understanding the object
- Materials
- wood, ties and hooks
- Parts
- shoulder support, two load-bearing ends, cords or hooks
- Purpose
- Carry two loads or water buckets.
- Period
- Context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century household collections and historical accounts; individual objects differ in date.
- Place and distribution
- A widespread implement type, with examples in the Kazimieras Būga Museum.
What it is and how it works
Naščiai distribute a load on either side of the carrier. Bundles or buckets hang from their ends. The Lithuanian encyclopaedia describes both bent and hooked forms, so identification should not depend on one imagined curved silhouette.
Evidence and examples
The central shoulder support and the end attachments are the most useful clues. A hollowed recess shows where the wood rested against the body; ties or hooks show how the load hung. The Kazimieras Būga Memorial Museum’s inventory places the implement among household objects.
How to identify it
A carrying yoke encourages us to read a farmstead as a network of movement: water source, path, yard and the point where vessels were set down. For a family object, ask who used it and what they carried. Timber species or overall length alone cannot identify the particular village it came from.
