Plowing was usually done with an ard, which was a simple plow without a coulter or moldboard, drawn by one or two draft animals. Such plows scratched a furrow, rather than turned the soil over, and cross-plowing (plowing a second time at right angles) was needed to provide a good seed bed. Such plows are effective only on light soils, and so heavy clay soils were not efficiently used for arable cultivation until the heavy plow was developed during the empire. The heavy plow had a coulter to cut the ground and a moldboard that turned the soil over and buried weeds.

In many areas cultivation was carried out by hand using spades and hoes. These tools were similar to modern ones except that the spade has a wooden handle and blade, which was sometimes tipped with iron to give a cutting edge. Hoes were also used for weeding, and spades were essential for harvesting root crops as well as for general maintenance tasks such as digging ditches.