From Milton Loch, Crocketford, Kirkcudbrightshire
An ard is a light plough which can break up the earth, but not turn it over. This picture shows a wooden stilt and ard head for a bow ard found in Milton Loch at Crocketford in Kirkcudbrightshire. It was used sometime between 770 and 200 BC.
The stilt is roughly rectangular in cross-section. The arrow-shaped ard head has a V-shaped groove cut in the upper surface along the axis.
Early ploughing was generally done with an ard pulled by draught animals. In a bow ard, the stilt and share (the part used to break up the soil), attached though a hole in the base of the beam (the part which connected the ard to the animals).
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