Re: Draught Animals | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Stonehenge and its Environs 134

Image by Chance

The bluestone debate

tonyh Nov 18, 2008 21:56:24

Replying to Steve Gray

Steve Gray wrote:

fitzcoraldo wrote:

So what about using draught animals?
Why do they never figure in the equation? Is there any evidence for or against the existance and use of draught animals in the late Neolithic /EBA?

They've generally been discounted on the basis that someone said large teams of oxen are notoriously difficult to control. However, pairs of oxen were often used for ploughing.

So what if 50 farmers turned up each with his own pair of oxen and a long rope? Each pair would be supervised by their owner and separated by enough space to avoid problems.

Sorry, but you fail to understand pulling power..

Each and every animal is pulling at a different rate..

It's why you attach animals to a central bar so as to equalise the effort..

Tony

Steve Gray Nov 18, 2008 23:03:15

Replying to tonyh

tonyh wrote:

Sorry, but you fail to understand pulling power..

That's a rather harsh disparagement to a physicist.

Surely, the whole point of a yolking bar is to keep the animals (and load) "locked" together as a team. It's role in distributing forces is incidental.

It was stated (in some previous thread a long time ago) that oxen could not easily be controlled as a team. If you refer back to my previous posting you will see that my proposition was phrased as a question. I was querying whether (if that assertion be true) they might be utilised as a collection of individual pairs rather than as a team.

I understand that the pulling rates are different. Nevertheless each pair would produce a force on their individual rope and those forces would be cummulative at the load, whether or not they are attached to a central bar.