Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (2.1972/1975)

PLOUGHSHARES

243

fined (fig. la). Its length is 50.3 cm, of which
the length of the ploughing blade is 16.8 cm.
Its thin but solid shaft broadens out towards
the end into a blade sharpened on both sides
(Sach 1961, 52-53; Balassa 1973, 74).
A similar specimen has been found in the
neighbourhood of Weilheim in Wilzhofen, Up-
per-Bavaria, also with a square cross-section
(fig. Id) (Leser 1931, 133 and table 5; Balassa
1973, 74, fig. 19d); A similar ploughing blade
may be seen on the well-known miniature
plough from Cologne (Leser 1931, fig. 25). It
is supposed that both originate from the Early
Roman Age.
This shape, however, existed not only in Cen-
tral Europe, but also in Western Europe. In
England no fewer than 7 such ploughshares
have been found, the majority around Hunsbury
Hillfort. They belong to the A.-B period of the
Iron Age in England, 700-500 B.C., but they
occur also in Pre-Roman times and, as relics, in
Roman times, see fig. lb-c (Payne 1948, 93,
table 1, 8-9).
Similar ploughshares are known from Bul-
garia, where they are also considered to be of
the Roman period (Vakarelski 1931, 65-66; Vi-
zarova 1954). It may be supposed that those
long parts of ploughs of the Scythians, which
are considered to be coulters of the 5th century
B.C., but which never occur together with
ploughshares and were thus the only iron part
of the plough, were in reality used as plough-
shares (Liberov 1952, 80-81).
Surely this shape was widely known and
perhaps the remark of Pliny refers to it: “Al-
terum genus est volgare, rostrati vectis” (“The
second type is the ordinary share consisting of
a bar sharpened to a point like a beak”. Pliny
18:48, translated by White 1967, 132-136). It
must have had a broad distribution at this time.
As to their shape and manner of fastening,
these ploughshares are most similar to the
wooden ploughing parts with an arrow-shaped
point and a long shaft, which are known from

Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Scotland, Ireland,
and Germany, and it may be supposed that the
plough finds revealed in the Soviet Union are
of the same type. According to C-14 tests such
wooden plough parts were still in use between
160 + B.C. and 733 + 80 A.D. (Leegdsmand
1968, 61; Bentzien 1968, 50-55). They were
thus still in use at a time when iron plough-
shares had gained ground. This type might have
served as an example for the development of
shafted iron ploughshares.
Such shafted iron ploughshares were in use
until recently over a very wide geographical
spread and recent examples provide good evi-
dence for the study of the methods of fastening
(Leser 1931 p. 64 Dorweiler, 94 Burgen a.d.
Mosel, 96 Rhine-Land, 307 surroundings of
Milano, 324 Ardennen and 329 Valencia; Hau-
dricourt/Delamarre 1955 p. 124 Ethiopia, 257
Tunis, 281 Bulgaria etc.).
2. Long-winged ploughshares with a flanged
socket
The most usual trait of this type is a long
narrow shape. The greatest breadth of the blade
is but one quarter or one fifth of the complete
length. There is great difference in the length
and the tightness of the wings according to- the
duration of use and the soil quality. It may be
supposed one type of plough with a sole had
a ploughing blade which was drawn onto the
plough-head, in which case it tilled the soil
almost horizontally, or it was fastened onto
the end of the bar stretching from the beam
and resting on the end of the sole, thus forming
an acute angle with the ground. This may be
compared to the form which is described by
Pliny: “tertium in solo facili non toto porrec-
tum dentali sed exigua cuspide in rostro” (“A
third type for use in light soils does not extend
along the whole length of the share-beam, but
has only a small spike at the extremity”. Pliny
18:48 translated by White 1967, 132).
A shorter type already appears in the Early