Ard (scratch plough)
Arado de mano o ard (arado de reja sin vertedera)
- Date
- c. 3800 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Prague-Bubeneč, Bohemia, Czechia; furrows at Kalundborg, Denmark
- Credited to
- Late Neolithic cultures of central Europe and Mesopotamia
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wooden plough pulled by oxen that opens a furrow without turning the soil, documented by plough marks beneath burial mounds and by Uruk pictograms. It multiplies the area a family can cultivate.
Plough marks at Bubeneč (c. 3800 BCE), Kalundborg (c. 3500 BCE) and Sarnowo (Poland) compete; the Uruk IV plough pictogram (c. 3300 BCE) confirms its use in Mesopotamia.
What it led to
- Extensive agriculture and the colonisation of heavy, dry soils
- Farm work becoming male-dominated as it depended on oxen, a shift in gender roles
- A surplus that sustains cities, and soil erosion on hillsides
Built on
Made possible
- Yoke and draft harnessc. 3000 BCE
- Kalibangan cross-furrowed ploughed fieldc. 2800 BCE
- Heavy mouldboard ploughc. 650
- Mesopotamian seeder plough
- Mouldboard plough
- Threshing