Ancient roman agriculture tools

Egypt, northern Africa, and Sicily were the principal sources of grain to feed the population of Rome, estimated at one million people at its peak. For yields of wheat, the number varies depending on the ancient source. Varro mentions seed-yield ratio for wheat as normal for wealthy landowners. Cicero indicates In Verrem a yield of as normal, and in exceptionally good harvest. Paul Erdkamp mentions in his book The Grain Market in the Roman Empire , that Columella was probably biased when he mentions a much lower yield of His argument induces him to exaggerate the profitability of vineyards and at the same time to diminish the yields that were obtained in grain cultivation.

At best Columella provides a trustworthy figure for poor soils; at worst, his estimate is not reliable at all. An agricultural unit was known as a latus fundus mentioned by Varro as a great estate. The Romans improved crop growing by watering growing plants using aqueducts.

An increasing amount of evidence suggests that some parts of the industry were mechanized. For example, extensive sets of mills existed in Gaul and Rome at an early date to grind wheat into flour. The most impressive extant remains occur at Barbegal in southern France, near Arles.

Sixteen overshot water wheels arranged in two columns were fed by the main aqueduct to Arles, the outflow from one being the supply to the next one down in the series. The mills apparently operated from the end of the 1st century AD until about the end of the 3rd century.

There are also later references to floating water mills from Byzantium and to sawmills on the river Moselle by the poet Ausonius. The use of multiple stacked sequences of reverse overshot water-wheels was widespread in Roman mines. There is evidence from bas-reliefs that farmers in northern Gaul present day France used a kind of automatic harvester or reaper when collecting ripe grain crops.

It cut the ears of grain without the straw and was pushed by oxen or horses. Possibly because the vallus was cumbersome and expensive, its adoption never became widespread and it fell into disuse after the 4th century CE. Aristocrats and common people could acquire land for a farm in one of three ways.

The most common way to gain land was to purchase the land. Though some lower class citizens did own small pieces of land, they often found it too difficult and expensive to maintain.

Because of the many difficulties of owning land, they would sell it to someone in the aristocracy who had the financial backing to support a farm. Though there were some public lands available to the common person for use, aristocrats also tended to purchase those pieces of land, which caused a great deal of tension between the two classes.

High ranking soldiers returning from war would often be given small pieces of public land or land in provinces as a way of paying them for their services. The last way to obtain land was through inheritance. A father could leave his land to his family, usually to his son, in the event of his death. Wills were drawn out that specified who would receive the land as a way of ensuring that other citizens did not try to take the land from the family of the deceased.

Though some small farms were owned by lower class citizens and soldiers, much of the land was controlled by the noble class of Rome. Land ownership was just one of many distinctions that set the aristocracy apart from the lower classes.

Cato discusses many of the primary focuses of the farmer and how to distinguish a great piece of land. He notes that a good farmer must take precious time to examine the land, looking over every detail. Careful planning went into every detail of owning and maintaining a farm in Roman culture. While the aristocracy owned most of the land in Rome, they often were not present at the farms.

With obligations as senators, generals, and soldiers at war, many of the actual landowners spent very little time working on their farms. Although turf cutters were more often used to open new roads and build defenses around the empire, they were also used to break hard, rocky soils. Shovels made of animal bone were used since prehistorically times.

Iron shovels of different sizes were a tool used in Roman farms to help in the preparation of the soil before planting vines and other fruit trees.

Shovels were also used to move grains from the fields into wooden buckets and baskets. Iron hoes, often made in a triangular shape, were also important farming tools during Roman times.

Skip to content. Ancient Roman Farm Tools The expansion of the Roman Empire resulted in bigger farms as a result of the increasing number of captured slaves arriving from conquered nations. Roman farming facts When people first started farming, each family pretty much farmed by itself. What tools did farmers use in ancient Rome Plows The simple plow or ard consisted of a frame with a sharp stick that was dragged into the soil to make a furrow for the seeds.

Sickles Sickles are ancient Roman Farm Tools, first made with wood and animal jaw bones. Manorial farming evolved to be extremely resource intensive; it required substantial investments in specialized labor, equipment, fertilizer and drainage. The willing cooperation of the peasants was therefore essential to having a productive farm. Thus, a good harvest benefited everyone on the manor, which encouraged further innovation. Horses gradually replaced oxen as the draft animal of choice because horses could plow more land more quickly.

This change also depended on an improved horse collar, imported from China, that permitted the animal to breath easily while pulling a heavy load, while horseshoes, another invention new to the European middle ages, further improved equine efficiency as they or horseshoes reduced hoof breakage.

By growing different crops at different times, farmers could minimize the risks of bad weather, pests, and disease.

Leiden: Brill, , Livesey, Faith Wallis, eds. Comet argues that this was the chief benefit of this system and that the three field method did not, in itself, substantially improve yields. Skip to content Chapter 5 — The Tools of Agriculture Hans Peter Broedel During the late Roman Empire, agricultural production had been focused largely on the great estates of powerful aristocrats.

Figure 2.