1940 



MACHINERY 



MACHINERY 



is likely to bo. One sliould look up the new ideas in 

 t«Hils each >e;ir ivs one does in markets or crops. Tlio 

 •■nlvertisinji pages of nirsil journiUs are suggestive in 

 this direction. 



Plow drawn by oxen. 

 2242. Tools in the sculptures on a Theban tomb. 



The very early tool for opening or tilling the grounrl 

 appears to have been a forked or crotched stick, one 

 prong of which was u.se<l as a handle and the other ;is a 

 cleaving instrument. From this the hoe and the plow 

 appear to have developed. (Fig. 2242.) 

 This set of illustrations shows sculptures 

 from a Theban tomb "of the eighteenth 

 or the beginning of the nineteenth 

 djTiasty;" it Ls reproduced from Dau- 

 beny's "Lectures on Uom.an Husbandry," 

 in which it Ls said that "The plough 

 itself is nothing more than a modification 

 of the hoe, which was first dragged along 

 the ground by manual labor, before the 

 force of oxen was substituted." 



In "The Museum Journal," published 

 by The University Museum of Phihi/- 

 delphia, .June, 1910, Babylonian Section, 

 is an interesting account by A. T. C, of 

 "an ancient plow," together with an 

 illu.stration fFig. 224I5J. "An exceed- 

 ingly interesting .seal impression depicting 

 a plow, drawn by two oxen, is found on a 

 clay tablet with a cuneiform inscription 

 in the University Mu.seum. This tablet belongs to the 

 Ca.ssite period of Babylonian history, and is dated in 

 the fourth year of the reign of Nazi-Maruttash, who 

 lived in the fourteenth cent\iry befort^ Christ. Tlie seal 

 U-sed to make the impression must have been an unu- 

 sually large one, for it measured about 2% inches in 

 length. After the surface of the soft clay tablet had 

 been coverwl with writing this seal, which was of the 

 asual cylindrical form, was run like a roller over the 

 in.scription on both sides and the four c-dges of the 

 tablet, which measure about 2J^ by 4J/^ inches. That 

 in, the fmtire document was covered with the impressions 

 of difTerrmt parts of this large seal. Unfortunately, 

 there is no complete impression of the seal on the tablet. 



Some of the parts were repeated a number of times, 

 but otiier i)arts seem to be entirely wanting. Moreover, 

 the surface of a portion oi the I ablet has sulTered con- 

 siderably, due probably to the moisture in the earth, or 

 ex])osure to the atniosplu>re after the tablet had been 

 excavated. The ac(X)nipanying drawing of the seal 

 impression (Fig. 2243) was mad(^ after a (careful study 

 of the dilTerent traces found on the various parts of the 

 tablet by Herman I'^iber, Miss Baker and the writer. 



"The plow gang consists of three men. The one 

 depicted larger in size than the others is doubtless the 

 cliief. He apix'ars to be driving the animals, as is 

 indicated by his rais(><l arm, perhajis holding a whip. 

 Another, having a bag over his shoulder, is in the act of 

 fee<ling the tube or grain-drill, through which the seed 

 was dropped into the furrow made by the plow, which 

 is being guided by the third man. The .anim.als draw- 

 ing the i)low, known as alpu, 'ox,' in the inscrijition, 

 are in use in Babylonia at the present time. It is the 

 Zebu or humped Inill {Boa irKlicux). 



"The individual for whom the seal was cut regarded 

 himself as a devotee of Nin-Sar, the god of vegetation, 

 as the first line of the inscription shows (Arad-NIN- 

 SAIl). Unfortunately the luime of the owner in the 

 second line is so imperfectly preserved that it cannot be 

 read. 



"For some time other rejiresentations of the plow in 

 antiquity have been known, but in no instance is it so 

 accurately represented as in this seal impression. A 

 boundary stone of Meli-Shipak, of the Cassite period, 

 recently found at Susa, contains the picture of a plow, 

 which has hitherto been regarded as the earliest. It 

 does not seem to have a tube. There is another picture 

 of a plow found on an undated fragment belonging to 

 the same period. Later representations of jilows with 

 tubes are found on monuments of Sennacherib and 

 Esarhaddon. Plows similar to the one found in this 

 seal imjjression are in use in Syria at the present time. 

 The plow on the Museimi tablet, here discussed, is the 

 earliest known, being about a century earlier than the 

 one on the boundary stone belonging to the reign of 

 Meli-Shipak. 







2243. Men plowing and sowing. From a Babylonian seal 

 impression, 14th century B. C. 



