The document discusses the history and evolution of agricultural tools such as axes, ploughs, hoes, sickles, and digging sticks. It explains that axes were originally used without handles in the Stone Age and were later attached to wooden handles. As different metals like copper, bronze, iron and steel emerged, axes incorporating these materials started being used. Ploughs evolved from simple digging sticks and tree branches into tools with components like a coulter, ploughshare, and mouldboard to more effectively till soil. Hoes and sickles were also important early farming tools used to move soil and harvest crops.

3. The axe is a tool used for
cutting wood.

4. The Stone Age axe was used
1.5 million years BC without
a handle.
Later it was fastened to a wooden
handle.

5. When copper, bronze,
iron and steel appeared,
axes made up of these
materials started to be
used.

6. It was also used as a weapon for
fighting in the Middle Ages.

7. When agriculture was first
developed, simple hand-held digging
sticks and hoes were used.
The rudimentary
plough, a modified
tree branch, was
adapted later to be
pulled by oxen.
.

8. A coulter is a vertically mounted component of many ploughs
that cuts an edge of about 18 cm. Its most effective depth is
determined by soil conditions.
A ploughshare is the cutting or leading edge of a
mouldboard which closely follows the coulter
when ploughing.
A mouldboard is the curved steel blade of
a plough that turns the furrow.

9. Digging Stick
It consists of a pointed stick, sometimes having a
stone or crossbar attached.
It is used to loosen and till the soil and to extract
plants.
.

10. Digging Stick
The earliest ploughs were digging sticks
decorated with handles for pulling or
pushing.

11. A hoe is an ancient and
versatile agricultural tool used
to move small amounts of soil.

12. In the Sumerian
mythology, Enlil,
the God of air
and wind, was
credited with the
invention of the
hoe.

13. Sickle
A sickle is a
hand-held
agricultural tool
with a curved
blade used for
harvesting grain
crops or cutting
grass.

14. The sickle appeared in
Europe in the 12th century.
Its use has greatly
diminished after the
invention of mechanical
mowers.
History

15. The scythe often appears as a
weapon in the hands of the
Death. It derives from the
Biblical belief of the Death as
the “harvester of souls”.

16. Comenius Project “Lost in Time”
Istituto Superiore “Majorana”
Palermo (Italy)