You may have seen them standing alone in a farmer’s field. With thin arms and perhaps a strange smile, they stand guard over the crops day and night. They are scarecrows, who work a job that has gone unchanged for thousands of years.
Scarecrows have been around since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians. Back then, farmers covered wooden frameswith nets to protect wheat fields along the Nile River. Farmers would hide in the wheat, and then jump out to scare birds into their nets to trap them. Around 2500 BCE, the Greeks made the first human-like scarecrows. They added a face which was similar to that of the Greek god Priapus. This was thought to be scary enough to keep birds away from their precious fields. The Romans later copied this design and brought it to Europe during the height ofthe Roman Empire.
Centuries after the Romans marched through Europe, people around the world were creating their own versionof scarecrows. In Japan, scarecrows were shaped like people and dressed in raincoats and straw hats. In Germany, scarecrows were made to look like witches. Perhaps strangest of all, in Britain, young boys and girls were even used as “living scarecrows” for a time.
