Francis 'mesolithic' Pryor and Phil 'neolithic' Harding test which flint axe performs better by felling a small tree in Time Team's series 13 (episode 9: Sussex Ups and Downs).
Nice to finally test the different results. As a carpenter having to service my tools is a huge unpaid time delay when I need to finish the work I'm paid for. I'd purchase the longer lasting neolithic tool, no question. I'm sure long before neolithic times, trade for skill specialization was commonplace.
Fascinating stuff. An interesting bit of trivia--the Chumash natives of the Santa Barbara area were grinding their axes when Pedro Fages encountered them in 1769. They also made amazing plank boats, probably the premier boat design in all of North America (the "tomol" sewn plank boat).
well it is pretty obvious that they would not have spend that amount of precious time and energy on a every day tool if it only was to make it better looking.
Remember, we are dealing with human beings here. Whenever you make something foolproof, someone will go and invent a better idiot. On this occasion, you are undoubtedly correct, however.
I dont think it really takes days to make the neolithic axe, just depends on where you grind it on. Though, the mesolithic is much easier and faster. In a survival situation, I rather make a mesolithic. Because the neolithic is not that much faster chopping wood, the main reason why it was better is it lasted much longer.
and was also a prestige status item, many have been found that were pristine and ritualy deposited also...think of the Jadeite axes that are found all over Europe but were mined only from one moutain in the Alps.
obviously. Mesolithic-Neolithic boundary comes with the advent of agriculture and sedentary life. when you live in a permanent settlement, planting crops and tending livestock instead of constantly hunting and gathering, you're gonna have plenty of time to make much more sophisticated tools.
Take two rocks and a pail of water, one rock more abrasive than the other. Stick them in the bucket filled with the water and start rubbing them together. If you keep at it constantly, all day long you'll have something like that in a week. Maybe.
One type is made granite diorite which is heavily crystallised rock formed in the crust mantle interactions in the earth's crust. Making a dense rock. To make a stone axe you have to nap it. You hit with another rock along the side where the crystalline structure of the rock is weaker and brittle and fractures along the crystalline structure. This gives you a roughout axe which doesn't take that long to make. Then you polish the axe with a sandstone with water. In the neolithic age this was most likely done in river.
No control and left many variables in play for calling that anything close to scientific. Different branches and different people wielding the axe are the most obvious variables not eliminated. Although likely a correct hypothesis, that was not even close to scientific.
Right? I am actually curious to know, but each of these guys looked like a five year old with a tool that is way to heavy and they don't know how to use it.
yes, a totally different approach has to be used with flint than wih modern metal alloys....hence the thousands of years seperating the inventions of the tools and lack of understanding of modern folk of ancient technologies.
