Implements and Machines

Plough

Also Known As Plow

Citation Formats

General Reference

Agriculture and Farming Atlas. "Plough." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/implements/plough.

APA Style

Agriculture and Farming Atlas. (n.d.). Plough. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/implements/plough

BibTeX

@misc{agricultureandfarmingatlas-plough,
  author = {Agriculture and Farming Atlas},
  title = {Plough},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://agriculture.interactiveatlas.org/implements/plough},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The oldest and most consequential farm implement: a blade dragged through the ground to break, turn and bury, converting sod and stubble into seedbed. From the simple scratch ard of the Bronze Age to the heavy mouldboard plough that opened northern Europe's clay and John Deere's steel plough that broke the prairie, its history is the history of what land could be farmed at all.

Facts

Disputed

Introduced Year

3000 BCE 2

Ard-plough evidence appears in the Near East as early as the sixth millennium BCE; the earliest known European wooden ard, at Lavagnone in Italy, dates to around 2300 to 2000 BCE, though scratch marks consistent with early ploughing there date to 3500 to 3000 BCE. 3000 BCE is used here as the conventional circa marker, consistent with this entity's own origin-note; the precise origin point and date remain debated among archaeologists.

Origin

Ard ploughs attested by circa 3000 BC in Mesopotamia and Europe; heavy mouldboard ploughs spread in medieval Europe; the steel plough dates to 1837 1

Cross-Tradition Connections