A hoe is an ancient hand tool used to shape soil, remove weeds, clear ground and harvest root crops such as potatoes. Farmers use it to pile soil around the base of plants, cut narrow furrows for seeds and bulbs, and agitate soil to cut weeds away from their roots. It is one of the oldest agricultural tools, predating the plough and ranking second in age only to the digging stick, with evidence in predynastic Egyptian art and mentions in texts such as the Code of Hammurabi and the Book of Isaiah. In 1975 California banned the short handled hoe as an unsafe farm tool after farmworker organizing led by Cesar Chavez highlighted the crippling back pain it caused laborers.
Facts
OriginAncient technology predating the plough; its invention was credited in Sumerian mythology to Enlil. 1 Classification
Power Source Connections
Associated With
the hoe and the spade are the two core hand tools of manual soil cultivation, used together in the same work
Powered By
Entity-backed identity for the power-source enum value this implement already carries, resolved to an agriculture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The power-source fact itself stays on the implement unchanged.
Sources
1. Hoe (Wikipedia)
History section
Hoes are an ancient technology, predating the plough and perhaps preceded only by the digging stick. In Sumerian mythology, the invention of the hoe was credited to Enlil, the chief of the council of gods.
History section, Sumerian mythology sentence
In Sumerian mythology, the invention of the hoe was credited to Enlil, the chief of the council of gods.
History section, Sumerian disputation poem sentence
The hoe features in a Sumerian disputation poem known as the Debate between the hoe and the plough, dating to the 3rd millennium BC.
History section, Hammurabi and Isaiah sentence
hoes are also mentioned in ancient documents like the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 18th century BC) and the Book of Isaiah (c. 8th century BC)
Opening definition, hand tool phrase
A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural and horticultural hand tool used to shape soil
Associated With: Plough, History section, opening sentence
Hoes are an ancient technology, predating the plough and perhaps preceded only by the digging stick.
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