The yoke is a wooden tool for attaching draft animals (especially oxen) to carts and ploughs.
Depending on the part of the animal's body on which the yoke was placed, a distinction was made between horn yokes and withers/nape yokes: the horn yoke was secured behind the ox's horns with a leather strap, while the withers yoke was placed at the base of the ox's neck. Sometimes the withers yoke was equipped with straps or chains, which connected the base of the horns to the tip of the drawbar and which helped to brake the cart when going downhill.
The withers yoke could be single, intended for attaching a single animal, or double.