58

BORIS A. SHRAMKO

on the ard from Kaplanovitshy. At the bend
of the beam on the Tokary ard there is anoth-
er square opening 8.5x2.9 cm, which also de-
creases downwards. The angle between this
opening and the bottom of the sole is 45-46°.
In the fore-end of the beam the notch of the
opening is only partially preserved; with its
help the beam was joined to a front beam.
The wood is of oak.
The general appearance of the ard from the
village of Tokary is very reminiscent of the
ard from Dabergotz dated to the 8th century
A.D. (Leser 1925; Bentzien 1968), but as a
matter of fact these tools are of different
types. The important difference lies in that
the fore-end of the sole of the Dabergotz ard
is blunt-pointed and had a cavity on which
rested the head of the arrow-pointed wooden
share with its share tang in the opening in the
bend at the beam. The ard from the village of

Tokary has a tapering round fore-end and the
use of a share of the Dabergotz type is not
possible. Ju. A. Krasnov leaves this fact out of
account, which leads to erroneous state-
ments. He imagines that the Tokary ard had a
share of arrow-shape (Krasnov 1987, 86-88).
Earlier we supposed that in the square open-
ing of the beam bend there was an iron coul-
ter (Shramko 1961). This view did not find the
support of some specialists, and they were
right for many years of excavations have not
produced coulters that would unquestionably
suit the ard from Tokary. A. Steensberg pro-
posed to us his version of a reconstruction.
He considered that a backward bent handle
had been fastened in the square opening in
the beam. This handle was supported by a
strut the lower end of which was fastened in
the square opening in the heel of the sole. I
think this proposal is likely. However, al-

Fig. 11. Ard from the peat-bog near the village of Kaplanovitshy (after Pobol 1967). □ Hakenpflug aus
dem Torfmoor bei dem Dorf Kaplanovitshy (nach Pobol 1967).