Cribrum
(
κόσκινον). A sieve; made of parchment
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Bronze Cribra or Sieves from Pompeii. (Overbeck.)
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perforated with holes, or of horse-hair, thread, papyrus, or rushes interwoven so as
to leave interstices between each plat. The Romans sifted their flour through two kinds of
sieves, called respectively
excussoria and
pollinaria, the latter of which gave the finest flour, termed
pollen. Sieves of horse-hair were first made by the Gauls; those of linen by the
Spaniards; and of papyrus and rushes by the Egyptians (
Plin.
H. N. xviii. 28; Cato ,
R. R. 76, 3;
Pers. iii. 112). See p. 429.