Editing Aratrum

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'''Aratrum''' is the Latin word for [[ard (plough)|ard]], and ''arotron'' (ἄροτρον) is the [[Greek language|Greek]] word. The [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] appear to have had several kinds of ard from the records. [[Hesiod]] advised the farmer to always have two ards handy, so that if one broke the other could replace it. These ards should be of two kinds. The first was the body- or crook-ard, called ''autoguos'' (αυτογυος, "self-limbed"), in which the stilt (Gk ''echetle''; Lat ''stiva'') was of the same piece of timber as the ard-head (Gk ''elyma''; Lat ''dentale'') and the draft-beam (Gk ''histoboeus''; Lat ''buris''). The second was the sole-ard, called ''pekton'' (πηκτον, "fixed"), because in it three parts (stilt + sole (Gk ''gyes'') + beam), which were of three kinds of timber, were adjusted to one another and fastened together by nails.

The ''autoguos'' crook-ard was made from a [[sapling]] with two branches growing from its trunk in opposite directions. In ploughing, the trunk served as the draft-beam, one of the two branches stood upwards and became the stilt, and the other scratched the ground and, sometimes shod with bronze or iron, acted as the [[ploughshare|share]] (Gk ''hynis''; L ''vomer'').

==Sources==
Based on an article from ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,'' John Murray, London, 1875.
ἄρατρον

==External links==
*[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Aratrum.html Smith's Dictionary article], with diagrams, further details, sources.

[[Category:Agricultural machinery]]
[[Category:Ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Animal equipment]]


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