Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (6.1988/1991)

THE PLOUGH PEBBLES OF IRELAND

By
Niall D. K. Brady

Introduction
The wear stones known as plough pebbles
have been studied since the early twentieth
century (Dauzat; Steensberg 1936,1963; Phil-
lips; Patte; Fenton; Lerche 1970a,b;
O’Kelly). They have realized a distribution
comprising the Auvergne and Loire regions
of France; Denmark; central and northern
Britain and parts of Ireland. Over the follow-
ing pages is presented an updated assessment
of the Irish assemblage and an appendix list-
ing all the known occurrences. In 1976
M. J. O’Kelly was working with fifteen peb-
bles from two sites from which he was unable
to find secure dating contexts. There are to-
day ninety-three examples from eighteen lo-
calities. Seven come from sealed archaeolog-
ical strata and a further ten from other usable
contexts. These indicate a narrow Medieval
time range centering on the thirteenth cen-
tury.
Form (figs. 2-4)
The Irish series conforms with the types
found elsewhere. Plough pebbles are essen-
tially worn stones. They are ordinary hard
field pebbles and in Ireland are predomin-
antly of quartz and flint. Two examples of
silicified mudstone and one of basalt also oc-
cur (Nos. 6, 67 and 93). They are small, on
average pebbles measure 35x25x30 mm
lengthxbreadthxdepth)1. Dauzat (482) rec-
orded that the French stones in Auvergne
were specially worked; however, there is no
evidence for such in the Irish series. The va-
riety of shapes suggests an entirely natural

form, the distinctiveness arising only from
wear. When in use, a very characteristic pat-
tern develops on one surface (figs. 1, 2). The
worn, or facetted, surface typically consists
of a smooth, slightly convex face with a
characteristically rounded edge directly op-



Fig. 1. Explanatory drawing of a plough pebble.
Drawn by N. B.
Darstellung eines Pflugkiesels mit Erlauterungen.
Gezeichnet von N. B.