Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (7.1992/1995)

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REVIEWS

fact is rather that each complex should be treated
as an organic development of its own, sometimes
with an original core of smaller and more irregular
fields surrounded by more regular ones. There are,
however, also other examples of later regulations
of field boundaries and structures.
But the most conspicuous result of Viggo Niel-
sen’s pioneering work is that his field boundaries
are so low that they would not appear upon a sur-
vey-map of fossil fields made with even the most
advanced techniques. This means that one should
treat such maps with caution as relating only to
visible testimonies of ancient field structures.
In this short presentation space will not allow
the reviewer to go into further details of the
books’ beautiful illustrations, of which some are in
colour and others are drawn with indications of
ploughing directions and traces of interpenetra-
tion of each other also drawn in colours by Gud-
run Nielsen, in a most illuminating way. No fu-
ture researcher of ard-ploughing can avoid being
instructed by this work.
Axel Steensberg
Ijornadas Internationales sobre technologia agra-
ria traditional.
Edited by Museo Nacional del Pueblo Espanol.
Salamanca 1993. 294 pp. ISBN 84-7483-982-3.
This beautifully produced report on the contribu-
tions to the first International Conference on Tra-
ditional Agrarian Technology held in Madrid 1992
comprises 33 articles in 5 sections mostly on Span-
ish subjects, written in Spanish or French. A paper
by Leonor Pena Chocarro, Institute of Archaeol-
ogy, London, on the use of ethnographic models
in archaeobotany, describes and shows the use of
the mesorias, two short sticks for breaking off the
ears of grain (p. 26). Of general interest is also
Niall Brady’s well illustrated paper on the impor-
tance of ethnology to the archaeologist, “Recon-
structing a Medieval Irish Plough” with drawings
of shares and coulters. In Section 3 M. Raga y Ru-
bio, Univ, of Valencia, publishes a 7.3 cm long iron
model of an ard with horizontal sole found in a
hoard in Covalta, the province of Valencia-Ali-
cante, and dated to between the 5th and 2nd cen-
tury B.C. (p. 106).
In section 2 lose Luis Mingote Calderon pub-

lishes an article on working angles: “Angeles la-
bradores y lamias” (p. 65-81). Many new icono-
graphic presentations of ploughing scenes, ards
and yoked oxen from the 17th century are shown.
Helena Meininger of the Musee National des
Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris describes
“Form and functioning of the Cotacachi ard” from
the Imbabura Province in northern Ecuador in il-
luminating detail (p. 127-136 in English). In sec-
tion 4 is an interesting paper by Inge Schjellerup of
the Danish National Museum: “Agricultura indl-
gena en Chachapoyas, Peru” on stone drains
across agricultural terraced-fields (p. 217-223) (cf.
her paper in Tools & Tillage V:2, 1985 and her
book “Children of the Stones” 1989 reviewed
above).
In section 5 Jan Bieleman’s contribution on
“Changing manuring techniques in open field
farming 1650-1850” is based on his former exten-
sive studies on sod-manuring in the province of
Drenthe, The Netherlands (p. 251-256). Professor
Gaetano Forni of the Centre Museologie Agricole
in Milan, Italy, sums up six principal technical
“revolutions” in the traditional agriculture of
Mediterranean Europe (p. 257-266), and Luciano
Baiaoo Vieira from the University of Embrapa,
Brasil, discusses the development of harnessing
animals for agricultural implements in different
provinces of Brasil, using drawings, maps and col-
our-photographs (p. 285-291). The colour illustra-
tions of this book are excellent.
This fine volume is to be recommended for ac-
quisition by university institutes and libraries. No
price is mentioned, but the organiser of the con-
ference and member of our International Commit-
tee, Jose Luis Mingote Calderon or Museo Ar-
queologico Provincial, Plaza del Cordon, 1-
E-34001 Palencia, Spain, may answer your ques-
tions.
Axel Steensberg
JEAN-PIERRE DEVROEY AND JEAN-JAC-
QUES VAN MOL (eds.): L’Epeautre (Triticum
spelta) Histoire et Ethnologic.
Univ er site Libre de Bruxelles. Centre d’Histoire et
de Technologies Rurales. Treignes 1989. Editions
DIRE, 81, rue de la Gare, 6390 Treignes. Belgium,
205 pp. (D 1989/3846 12 ISSN 0776-7218).