[Sca-cooks] OT: Mystery Object

[Martha Sieting]

Following the theme of "what is it" questions we've had lately, I'm trying to figure out this image from the Church of St. Lazare at Autun.

http://www.paradoxplace.com/Photo%20Pages/France/Burgundy%20Champagne/Autun/L_Medallions/L_Medallions.htm

The one I'm looking at is the enlargement labeled L1 with the caption "What did he do?"

This is part of a series of images showing the signs of the zodiac and labors of the months over the main entrance to the church.  This image comes at the beginning of the sequence and is followed by images that are typically used to identify the start of the year.

Any ideas what the lefthand figure is holding over his shoulder?  It just occurred to me that it might be a broom for "sweeping out the old year" but I don't know if that's a medieval concept.

This probably isn't food-related, but the folks on this list have such great breadth of knowledge, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask!

Many thanks,

Helena