An archaeological discovery is set to shed new light on the history of farming.
Dr Gabor Thomas of the University of Reading and his team have found a 7th Century iron plough coulter during excavations at Lyminge .
A coulter is a vertical soil slicer mounted like a knife to cut through the soil ahead of a plough share to improve the plough's efficiency.
Unlike the small fields associated with earlier light ploughs they cultivated the land in long narrow strips making the large open fields which would become a standard feature of the medieval countryside.
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