- Scratch Plow
Around 9500 B.C.E, In a number of populations distant from one another, people began to select and cultivate plants for food and other purposes. These people were the first farmers. ln what is now known as the Fertile Crescent in Southwest Asia, small populations engaged in small-scale farming and began to grow the eight founder crops of agriculture-emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, bitter vetch, peas, chickpeas, lentils, and flax. However, it took thousands of years before the farmers
developed the practices and technologies necessary to enable cultivation of the land on a larger scale.
In 5500 B.C.E. the first plow, a tool used to prepare the soil for planting, was developed in Mesopotamia by the Indus Valley Civilization. It was. known as the scratch plow and represented one of the greatest advances in agriculture. It consisted simply of a wooden stick attached to a wooden frame, but was able to aerate the soil and scratch a furrow to allow the planting of seeds. The plow was pulled by domesticated oxen and left strips of undisturbed earth between each plowed row. To increase the productivity of their fields, farmers often cross-plowed them at right angles. The squarish fields that resulted are known to archaeologists as "Celtic fields".
Many different types of plow have superseded this simple device, but it is still used in many parts of the world. In certain areas, including northern Europe, the scratch plow was ineffective in dealing with sticky clay soils. However, in India farmers continue to use the primitive plow to introduce organic materials into soils that have been cultivated for up to 2,000 years.
SEE ALSO: CARPENTRY, IRRIGATION, MOLDBOARD PLOW, STEEL PLOW, CAST-IRON PLOW
- Sewage System
Indus Valley toilets are connected to sewers.
It was probably more the need to get rid of foul smells than an understanding of the health hazards of human waste that led to the first proper sewage systems. While most early settlements grew up next to natural waterways into which waste from latrines was readily channeled-the emergence of major cities exposed the inadequacy of this approach.
Early civilizations, like that of the Babylonians, dug cesspits below floor level in their houses and created crude drainage systems for removing storm water. But it was not until around 2500 B.C.E. in the Indus Valley that networks of precisely made brick-lined Sewage drains were constructed along the streets to convey waste from homes. Toilet in homes on the street side were connected directly to these street sewers and were flushed manually with clean water.
Centuries, later, major cities Such as Rome and Constantinople built increasingly complex networked sewer systems, some of which are still in use. These days the waste is transported to industrial Sewage works rather than to the sea or rivers.
After its installation, the early sewage technology of many Cities in Western Europe remained in place without improvement. As recently as the late nineteenth century it was often so inadequate that fatal contagious diseases caused by foul water, such as cholera and typhoid, were still common.
SEE ALSO: DRIED BRICK, POTTERY, FLUSH TOILET, S-TRAP FOR TOILET, BALLCOCK