Middle English Hame, Anglo-French Estele

‘Wooden Collar-Parts For a Draught Horse’

Abstract

The production of food increased dramatically in the centuries between 1000 and 1300 and with it the population of western Europe. One of the chief motors of this progress was the adoption of the mouldboard plough and related heavy plough, which made possible the tillage of the heavy but fertile soils of north-western Europe. The resulting row and furrow pattern in fields also improved drainage. But this technological development demanded a comparable source of power, which was not be found in ineffective ploughing with slow oxen burdened with inefficient yokes. The solution was found in horse power and the invention that fully tapped this resource: the horse collar. This is note is devoted to the terminology of a key part of the collar: the hames.