agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

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

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

). It is the cutting or leading edge of a

moldboard A plough or plow (Differences between American and British spellings, US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are draw ...

which 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. By using the SPIKES method for introducing a ...

) when plowing. The plowshare itself is often a hardened

blade A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Histor ...

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, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

) 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 ploughshares are found at the sites of Chinese

Majiabang culture The Majiabang culture, also named Ma-chia-pang culture, was a Chinese Neolithic culture that existed at the mouth of the Yangtze River, primarily around Lake Tai near 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 one of the largest freshwater lakes in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. ...

. Ploughshares have also been discovered at the nearby Liangzhu and

Maqiao ''A Dictionary of Maqiao'' () is a novel written by Chinese writer Han Shaogong. It was first published in 1996 and was translated into English by Julia Lovell in 2003. ''Yazhou Zhoukan'' selected it as one of the top 100 greatest Chinese novels i ...

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. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 classification and methods of use, the triangular plough assumed many kinds and were the departure from the Hemudu and Luojiajiao spade, with the Songze small plough in mid-process. The post- Liangzhu ploughs used draft animals.You
(1999), 1–8.

In heraldry

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

Erding Erding () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the 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 located around 31 kilometers nor ...

File:DEU Tunau COA.svg, Arms of Tunau File:Wappen Leuna.svg, Arms of

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

File:Wappen erlbach.png, Arms of Erlbach File:DEU Neuler COA.svg, Arms of Neuler File:Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati.svg, Arms of

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati The Archdiocese of Cincinnati ( la, Archidiœcesis Cincinnatensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese that covers the southwest region of the U.S. state of Ohio, including the greater Cincinnati and Dayton metropolitan ...

In ancient cultures

The ancient phrase from the biblical

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) 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 B ...

, "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 chapter 2: The '' ploughshare'' ( ''’êṯ'', al ...

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

Book of Joel The Book of Joel is collected as one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament. Content After a superscription ascribing the prophecy to Joel (s ...

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

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

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, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination o ...

, many

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

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

ancient Athenians Athens is one of the 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 the first millennium BC, and its cultural achieve ...

. After their victory and his disappearance, an

oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word ...

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

References

External links

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