agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

, a plowshare ( US) or ploughshare ( UK; ) is a component of a plow (or

plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...

). It is the cutting or leading edge, preceding the

moldboard A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, ...

, and it closely follows the coulter (one or more ground-breaking

spikes The SPIKES protocol is a method used in clinical medicine to break bad news to patients and families. As receiving bad news can cause distress and anxiety, clinicians need to deliver the news carefully. Using the SPIKES method for introducing and ...

) when plowing. The plowshare itself is often a hardened

blade A blade is the Sharpness (cutting), sharp, cutting portion of a tool, weapon, or machine, specifically designed to puncture, chop, slice, or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they a ...

dressed into an integral moldboard (by the

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

) so making a unified combination of plowshare and moldboard, the whole being responsible for entering the cleft in the earth (made by the coulter's first cutting-through) and turning the earth over. In well-tilled terrain the plowshare may do duty without a preceding coulter. In modern plows both coulter and plowshare are detachable for easy replacement when worn or broken.

History

Triangular-shaped stone plowshares are found at the sites of Chinese

Majiabang culture The Majiabang culture, formerly also written Ma-chia-pang, was a Neolithic culture that occupied the Yangtze River Delta, primarily around Lake Tai west of modern Shanghai and north of Hangzhou Bay. The culture spread throughout southern Jian ...

dated to 3500 BC around

Lake Tai Taihu (), also known as Lake Tai or Lake Taihu, is a lake in the Yangtze Delta and the third largest freshwater lake in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. With ...

. Plowshares have also been discovered at the nearby Liangzhu and Maqiao sites roughly dated to the same period. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

archaeologist David R. Harris says this indicates that more intensive cultivation in fixed, probably bunded, fields had developed by this time. According to Mu Yongkang and

Song Zhaolin's A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usually ...

classification and methods of use, the triangular plow assumed many kinds and were the departure from the

Hemudu The Hemudu culture (5500 BC to 3300 BC) was a Neolithic culture that flourished on the Chinese coast, just south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangnan in modern Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. The culture may be divided into early and late phases, before ...

and Luojiajiao spade, with the

Songze The Songze Culture was a Neolithic culture that existed between 3800 and 3300 BCE in the Lake Tai area near Shanghai. Dates Three radiocarbon dates were taken from Songze culture layers at Jiangli near Lake Tai. Two of the dates were obtained f ...

small plow in mid-process. The post- Liangzhu plows used

draft animals A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for transportation (e.g. riding horses and camels), while othe ...

.You
(1999), 1–8.

In heraldry

Plowshares are often used in heraldry. File:DEU Erding COA.svg, Arms of

Erding Erding () is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the Erding (district), rural district of the same name. It had a population of 36,469 in 2019. The original Erdinger Weissbier is a well-known Bavarian specialty. Erding is ...

File:DEU Tunau COA.svg, Arms of

Tunau Tunau is a municipality in the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and th ...

File:Wappen Leuna.svg, Arms of

Leuna Leuna () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, south of Merseburg and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle, on the river Saale. The town is known for the ''Leuna works, Leunawerke'', at 13 km2 one of the biggest chemical industrial complexes i ...

File:Wappen erlbach.png, Arms of Erlbach File:DEU Neuler COA.svg, Arms of

Neuler Neuler is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, in Ostalbkreis district. Geography Geographical location Neuler lies on a ridge between the Kocher and Jagst rivers, about seven kilometers southwest of Ellwangen. It has a share in the n ...

File:Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati.svg, Arms of the

Archdiocese of Cincinnati The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cincinnati () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church that covers all of the dioceses in the State of Ohio. As of 2025, the archbishop of Cincinnati is Robert Casey. T ...

In ancient cultures

The ancient phrase from the biblical

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

, "to turn

swords to ploughshares Swords to ploughshares (or plowshares) is a concept in which military weapons or technologies are converted for peaceful civilian applications. The phrase originates from the Book of Isaiah Isaiah 2, chapter 2: The ''ploughshare'' ( ''’� ...

," is still in common use today. These plowshares represent peaceful use of wartime capabilities. On the other hand, the

Book of Joel The Book of Joel (Hebrew language, Hebrew: ספר יוֹאֵל ''Sefer Yo'él'') is a Judaism, Jewish prophetic text containing a series of "divine announcements". The first line attributes authorship to "Joel the son of Pethuel". It forms part o ...

uses the phrase in reverse, "Beat your plowshares into swords". However, in

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

during the

Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens (polis), Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Achaemenid Empire, Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaph ...

, many

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

were slain by a deadly plowshare-wielding ally who appeared suddenly on the side of the

ancient Athenians Athens is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in t ...

. After their victory and his disappearance, an

oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

told the Athenians to worship the hero under the name Echetlaeus: the hero with the "''echetlon''", or plowshare.

References

External links

The Rotherham Plow - the first commercially successful iron plow
Animal equipment Agricultural machinery Chinese inventions Heraldic charges Ploughs {{tool-stub