26th January 2009, 11:05 AM
The attribution as ploghshares isn't as unlikely as it may seem - there is a type of stone artefact that are vaguely axe shaped where the wear marks suggest that they may have been used as ard tips. I've never quite seen how they would have been attached to a share though, I'd have thought the pressure would rip them off. On the other hand it would save a lot of replacing wooden shares, particularly if the soil was a bit stony (from experience of ploughing with ard replicas).