A digging stick, sometimes called a yam stick, is a wooden implement used primarily by subsistence-based cultures to dig out underground food such as roots and tubers, tilling the soil, or burrowing animals and anthills. It is a term used in archaeology and anthropology to describe similar implements, which usually consists of little more than a sturdy stick which has been shaped or sharpened and sometimes hardened by being placed temporarily in a fire.
A digging stick of the Pacific Northwest coast
Nuba person farming in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan
A Māori digging stick
A plough or plow is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or steel frame with a blade attached to cut and loosen the soil. It has been fundamental to farming for most of history. The earliest ploughs had no wheels; such a plough was known to the Romans as an aratrum. Celtic peoples first came to use wheeled ploughs in the Roman era.
Traditional ploughing: a farmer works the land with horses and plough
13th century depiction of a ploughing peasant, Royal Library of Spain
Ancient Egyptian ard, c. 1200 BCE. (Burial chamber of Sennedjem)
Farmers using a plough. Akkadian Empire seal, circa 2200 BCE. Louvre Museum