Hoes and the First Farmers on Lithuanian Territory: from Hoe to Ard
Volume 26 (2019), pp. 66–79
Pub. online: 5 December 2019
Type: Article
Open Access
Received
1 October 2019
1 October 2019
Revised
15 October 2019
15 October 2019
Accepted
22 November 2019
22 November 2019
Published
5 December 2019
5 December 2019
Abstract
A hoe is a hand tool which appeared in Lithuania in post-glacial times together with the first population. Later, in the Mesolithic, the hoe became a universal tool used for versatile foraging purposes. Only antler hoes are known from these periods. The same function of hoes continued into the Neolithic/Bronze Age, with the only difference that their shapes changed, adapting to new work related to the cultivation of the first crops. In the Neolithic, stone and wooden hoes appeared along with antler hoes. In the Bronze Age, the function of hoes remained the same as in earlier times, but their wider use was related to hoefarming. The shape of hoes was changing, especially of snake-head hoes, which could be used for various ritual ceremonies. Only in the Middle to Late Bronze Age did the Neolithisation process come to an end, with the development of slash-and-burn agriculture and the domestication of animals. The first horn ards appeared in the Late Bronze Age.