In medieval and early modern Germany, the term “Haken” could refer to one of three things: a plowing implement (the digging-stick plow), a subunit of a hide (Hufe [hide]), or a peasant taxation district.

The division between digging-stick and sod-turning/plowing technologies in Europe went back to the 3rd century BCE if not earlier [2. 157]. The symmetrical, usually wooden digging-stick plow cut and disturbed the soil evenly, no deeper or more broadly in any one place (and so was also called the rake plow); this was initially in more widespread …