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The Plow That Built an Empire

Plows Pulled by Cattle Are Known in Northern Mesopotamia In the history of farming, one of the biggest changes was the move from hand tools to animal-powered fieldwork. In northern Mesopotamia, this change seems to have included the use of simple plows pulled by cattle. Archaeologists usually imagine these early plows not as heavy modern plows, but as ard-type plows or scratch plows. They cut shallow furrows in the soil rather than turning it over deeply. Even so, this was an important step, because once people could use animal traction, they could work larger areas of land and reduce some of the physical burden on human labor. Evidence from northern Mesopotamia suggests that cattle traction was becoming significant by the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic periods, roughly the fifth to fourth millennia BCE. Northern Mesopotamia was well suited to this kind of development. Unlike the alluvial south, much of the north depended more on rainfall agriculture. Farmers grew cereals in broad dry-farmed zones and had to make careful use of labor, land, and animals. In that setting, a simple plow pulled by cattle could be very useful. It would help open furrows for sowing grain and make it easier to cultivate larger fields than could be managed by hoes or digging sticks alone. Animal traction also mattered because it did not only save effort; it could increase production and help create surplus, which in turn supported larger villages, stronger institutions, and more complex economies.