Researched
The plough
The ox-drawn ard broke open the soil and let one farmer work far more land than with a hoe or digging stick.
Open in the interactive tree →Simple scratch ploughs pulled by oxen appear around 4000-3500 BC in Mesopotamia and Europe. They turned animal power into fieldwork and allowed larger fields and heavier soils. Later iron and mouldboard ploughs opened the damp clay soils of northern Europe.
Prerequisites
- Farming (Neolithic Revolution)~9500 BC
- Animal domestication~9000 BC
- Draft Animals & Muscle Power~4000 BCEarly ploughs were pulled by oxen and donkeys: draft-animal power
Unlocks
- Three-field rotation~800
- Seed Drill1701
- Mechanical reaper1834
- The tractor1917
- Stopping soil lossopen
More in Agriculture & Food · Prehistory
- Farming (Neolithic Revolution)~9500 BC
- Granaries & Grain Storage~9300 BC
- Animal domestication~9000 BC
- Fermented food and drink~7000 BC
- Irrigation~6000 BC