Animal Traction and the Transformation of Europe

The domestication of sheep, goats and cattle by the first farmers of the Fertile Crescent of western Asia, some ten thousand years ago, had unexpected consequences. Originally intended simply to secure for sedentary cerealcultivators a captive meat supply and a convenient source of materials such as sinew and horn, domesticated livestock came to provide novel services to human populations in life as well as in death. At first, these products and services were simple: their dung fertilised the crop-gardens and their hair provided a coarse fibre; their strength and weight could be used to carry loads or to thresh the cereals--"the ox [who] treadeth out the corn" (Deuteronomy 25, 4). By the time of the appearance of the first cities, however, some six thousand years ago, the contribution of domestic livestock had considerably broadened and these animals now provided wool, milk and motive power. Clothing and diet had become more elaborate, and the power of the ox was applied to pulling the plough and the cart--the first machines for cultivating the soil or carrying its products. By this time, too, further species of plants and animals had been domesticated at various points around the Fertile Crescent: the tree-crops, rich in sugars or oils (date, vine, olive), and animals such as the donkey, horse and camel which were domesticated for transport. Donkeys, and later horses, came to be used as draught animals as well as pack animals, and more sophisticated wheeled vehicles came to be developed--especially for warfare. This growing complexity in husbandry and technology went hand in hand with a growing complexity in human relationships and the organisation of material production. Since neither ploughs nor wheeled vehicles are of much use without animal motive power and an effective way of harnessing it, and since they are relatively expensive in resources, the invention of the plough and the wheel must be considered both in the context of animal husbandry and management, and in the social and economic context of evolving human institutions.