Crude sickles made of iron, found in the Przeworsk Culture areas, have not previously been the subject of a separate study. The artefacts in question, interpreted as harvesting tools, form a relatively small category of agricultural implements. As they greatly resemble regular sickles, there are no clear criteria defining these two groups of artefacts. Due to their similarity, especially in the case of incomplete specimens, the identification of the aforementioned tools in archaeological material is difficult.

The crude sickle, unlike the regular sickle, has a slightly curved or straight blade measuring 30 to 50 cm in length and generally 3 to 4 cm in width. In most specimens, the tang is distinguished from the blade on one side and terminates in a spike, which is bent perpendicular to the plane of the tool and used to attach a wooden handle. The handle is longer than that of the sickle but much shorter than that of the modern scythe. The blade laying flush with the tang (and thus the handle) forms an obtuse or, at most, a right angle. This fact, in addition to their smaller size, distinguishes crude sickles from proper scythes, in which the handle is positioned at an acute angle to the blade.

The first appearance of crude sickles can most probably be linked to the economic revolution in the Celtic environment, which resulted in the introduction of a number of improved iron tools. There is a reasonable assumption in the literature that crude sickles were primarily used for cutting grass, and their presence in archaeological assemblages may indicate the important role of animal husbandry in the economy of ancient societies. It is possible that in some areas such tools were also used for harvesting crops, although there is no evidence to support such usage of the items in question in the La Tène Period and the Roman Iron Age. In addition to their main purpose, crude sickles may have actually served a number of secondary uses, such as harvesting reeds or wicker.

The oldest tools of this type in the territory of present-day Poland, dating to the last centuries BCE, have been discovered in the zones of Celtic settlement in the Upper San River basin and at Tyniec Group sites near Kraków. Of the same chronology is the largest series of crude sickles, consisting of approx. 70 specimens, discovered at Pikule 2 (SE Poland) during plundering exploration; most of them have been lost. Only a small part of the assemblage, together with a few more specimens discovered during rescue excavations at Pikule, has found its way to museum collections.

In the Przeworsk Culture areas, the artefacts in question are known both from settlement and sepulchral sites; they were also relatively often included in deposits (so-called hoards) of iron tools. Considering the high uniformity of crude sickles, only a few of which have been discovered in better-dated assemblages, as well as the fragmentary nature of many specimens, the typological method cannot be used to establish their chronology. All crude sickles recorded to date at Przeworsk Culture sites correspond either to type II in the classification created by A. Leube (2003) for the tools of this type from the northern part of central Europe or to type I5 in the classification of such artefacts from south-eastern Europe by J. Henning (1987), grouping specimens with rather narrow and slightly curved blades (Figs. 5−8). Sixteen sites of the Przeworsk Culture yielded a total of 23 crude sickles. From 10 settlements come 17 specimens, eight of which were discovered in outbuildings or residential dwellings, five in iron tool deposits (so-called hoards), and the last four were stray finds. The remaining exemplars were recovered from cemeteries − three came from graves (two female and one unspecified), two were stray finds, and one was part of a deposit.

The oldest crude sickle from the Przeworsk Culture area comes from the settlement at Dzbądzek (Cat. 3), dated to the Late Pre-Roman Period. In the case of the other artefacts, it was possible to determine the chronology of the crude sickles found in grave assemblages, while the rest can only be dated within broader time ranges.
Crude sickles have been found in various zones of the Przeworsk Culture area (Fig. 2). Their small number and the vague dating of most of these tools make it difficult to draw general conclusions. Nevertheless, some observations are worth mentioning. For example, the number of crude sickles gradually increases from the Late Pre-Roman Period (one specimen) to the Late Roman Iron Age and the early stage of the Migration Period, which yielded the largest number of crude sickles (15 specimens) (cf. Catalogue). The younger specimens are concentrated in central and southern Poland, while the older ones are scattered in the northern, north-eastern and eastern zones of the then territory of the Przeworsk Culture.

The greater number of crude sickles from the terminal phases of the Przeworsk Culture is unlikely to be indicative of the intensification of animal husbandry at the time, as it was a period of demographic regression and a significant dilution of settlement structures. More recent dendrochronological, palynological and geological studies conducted for peat bogs suggest that there may have been a significant cooling of the climate towards the end of the Roman Iron Age and during the Migration Period in Europe. These data are confirmed by written sources. The cooling of the climate may have prolonged the annual period during which cattle were wintered inside barns, increasing the demand for hay, which was more easily met by using crude sickles rather than regular sickles.

The appearance of iron crude sickles in archaeological material of the Przeworsk Culture is one of the manifestations of the influence of the Celtic world on the said group; a few cases of deposition of these tools in graves seem to be the result of contact with the Balt environment. The finds of crude sickles further indicate the important role of husbandry in the economy of the Przeworsk Culture communities, which seems to be confirmed by the greatest accumulation of these tools in the region between the Prosna and Warta rivers, characterised by moderately fertile soils.