The chipper will become a man with lots of jewellery all of a sudden when everyone realizes they can't afford to just port everything to bronze and they need someone to maintain the legacy stone.
@@fba90130 I think chipping is not about working on stone for houses. It's about making tools with sharp edges by breaking off pieces of stone such that you get one continuous edge. He's no stone cutter, brick maker or builder - he makes knives, axes, spear- and arrowheads. All of which might be replaced with bronze equivalents.
Ironically the Bronze age saw the pinnacle of stone working. Archaeologically you rarely find bronze on Bronze age sites, but plenty of flints. Bronze in the Bronze age was very expensive, so it was frequently recycled, and kept in the hands of the wealthy, whilst flint remained the Bread and butter material for tools well into the Iron Age.
Bronze is very nice and all, but there's just something more artisanal and authentic about a stone axe. It makes a "warmer" sound when you hit something with it.
Here's me spending a week writing an essay on the repercussions of robotics on the work market, when I could have just handed in a link to this sketch.
@@donrobertson4940People who are only intelligent enough for manual labor will not suddenly become mechanical engineers just because all the manual labor is done by machines.
My father and his father before him were chippers, all the way back generations. Neither of them understood when I told them I wanted to train as a smelter. They kept saying I was dishonouring the family name. Joke's on them though, they got killed by the tribe by the river with shiny hats when they raided the village at time when someone gets out of bed to have a noisy piss, but I managed to survive thanks to my bronze sleeping cover.
@@royfearn4345 It's extra funny because while we have singular and plural forms in most European languages today, Proto-Indo-European had singular, dual and plural. So literally their language accounted for the concepts of one, two and many!
before the digital orientation week, we had the, er, it was steam i think. For ages, everything was steam, steam phones, steam nightclubs and so on. The best part was that fire engines were also steam, which requires fire to work. The fire dept actually started more fires than they extinguished and were glad when diesel took over.
We used to make obsidian here. Real, homegrown stuff---none that cheap 'iron' crap. Now all the Indo-Europeans are moving in and takin' our jobs. No way, Hosiah. I'm telling you now, come the Sabbath I'm shippin' off to Yucatan.
How did you manage to bucket up the lava? Or did you just pour the water on top of it? Our tribe could never find enough diamonds to harvest the stuff, either.
@@SonofSethoitae what, no! We are amazing at naming stuff. Archeologists find that most of the houses (haus) in the northern european iron age were one part living quarters (wohnen) and one part stables (stall). What are the y call it: Wohn-Stall-Haus! (Living-Stable-House). It´s wonderful^^
The decoration on Harry Back's helmet is genius. The lines are so faint you almost miss them, but once you notice impossible to ignore. Shows up clearly for just a couple of seconds at 1:16.
I love how everybody in the comments is combining actual historical facts with tongue-in-cheek parodies on modern automation. The most well read commenters I've seen on youtube in a long time.
That part at the end "Will all the bronze still need tying to sticks" was my favourite. Whenever you come out with a new better technology, you still need tradespeople to actually install and maintain the bloody stuff :P
*"Why don't we leave bronze to the smart alecs and the whizzkids and we'll just carry on using stone axes like we always do!"* _"Because if you do, the tribes with the bronze axes will kill you"_ I have to say I love this because I think it's a good analogy. I've seen numerous occasions where the company technical teams are trying to introduce a new, better system and some employees keep stating that there's nothing wrong with the system they're used to. The tech team then have to painstakingly point out that if they don't adopt the new system, their competitors who are using it will outperform them because it's much more efficient.
Plenty companies have squandered millions on the latest IT fad and have had to either abandon it or go broke. Not alll change and innovation is good. That's as naive as thinking it's all bad. A lot of these projects only benefit the sales team.
Don Robertson True, however I stated in my comment that the hypothetical new system _is_ objectively better. I’m not simply advocating that everyone goes along with any innovation suggested, just that I have seen a number of instances where there is resistance to change for no other reason than people are willing to forego improvement for the sake of familiarity. This is showcased in this sketch where bronze is objectively superior to stone but the character doesn’t want to use it simply because he’s it’s not what he’s used to.
Good news for the chipper. Bronze needs molds! Without a mold, you can't form bronze into something useful, and the chipper who cn make the best and most reusable molds suddenly becomes the most important guy. After all, melting bronze ain't that hard.
@@Scipionyxsam Often you get the right shape in the clay by pressing something hard into it, for example a wooden or stone version of the thing you want to make.
Well, you need someone to sharpen the bronze to make it work good, so chipper of stone can just retrain himself to sharperner of bronze. It should only take him as long as from "time when we all wake up" to "time when we all go to bed". After that in when "the sun comes out from behind the hills again", he should be a master of his "skills which people do for a living or else they don't get share of food".
Nah. You certainly can form usefull objects out of bronze without casting. That plate would have been made by "spinning ", where a lathe and pressure flattens out a thin pkate of metsl. Think big brass gongs and cymbals too. . The chipper would just become s beater.
Imagine, the pits full of stone implements, which archaeologists and historians discovered, and explained them away as possibly part of some elaborate rituals by old tribes to please the Gods or their own ancestors or the nature or something else, were actually rubbish bin-pits by bronze-tribes who killed the stone-tribes, took away their stone weapons and dumped them away, because bronze was a much better weapon and, well, frankly, quite zeitgeisty.
Probably the case, actually. Archeologists are famous for assuming religious rituals as their first explanation. My favourite example is a small relic that was found at a digsite. Archeologists assumed it was a tool used in rituals or sacrifices. Then a barber happened to see it, and was like "no, that's a hairdressing tool, I have a couple of them." Archeologists really need to liase with tradespeople more often. You'd be shocked just how many examples like the above there are. I recently came across one where the archeologists thought something was used for animal sacrifice, turns out it's a leather working tool still used today. If such a mound of weapons was discovered, they'd probably assume ritual or mass burial after a battle, and then someone who works landfill will look at it and go "no that's a bin"
@@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human There was the famous example of a site in I think it was Syria, that they were convinced was a temple only to later realize was a literal dump.
@@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human What they're famous for is making wild assumptions and insisting they must be true, and are publishable as long as they haven't been disproven yet.
My grandfather is an archaeologist, specialising mostly in Greece. And he once told me a story of a dig he was on once where they discovered all these strangely shaped and angled tiles and couldn't figure out what the hell they were for. Until one of his friends happened to be visiting the site and took one look at those and said "oh hey, those are roof tiles for capping things off".
@@agnetalykins7564that because archeologists had never seen a roof. Everybody knows that book learning people are very stupid and are often shown up by illiterate clever people Roll
I love this bit, but I got good news for Big-Feet. They still needed chippers in the bronze age because bronze is made out of 2 rare metals that have to be traded from far away for most people in the bronze age. Thus bronze was a high class item, your every day man would still use stone items, ensuring some employment for chippers until the iron age.
A lot of stone axes were needlessly thrown away in the Bronze Bubble, hyped up by Hairyback and other Bronze marketing shysters from Tribe in the Valley That Have Lots of Jewellery All of a Sudden.
I heard he took his redundancy package and started a classy stone axe boutique on the place-we-walk-down-between-the-houses to cater to those with a more classic taste.
The chipper should set up an "Artisanal Chipping" service and charge 5 times as much, he'll have more shiny pebbles and furs than anyone else in the village! Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle! ^_^
This pretty much actually happened. Bronze age flint arrowheads are *insane* and boggle the mind in terms of skill and fanciness. Flint remained the bread and butter material for your average folk. Bronze was for fancy folk.
I've definitely worked with people like that. Even worked with one person who didn't want to use email and for a while insisted on posting in his worksheets.
Decades ago I worked with a guy who was scared of computers. He thought he had to understand the electronics and how to write programs to use one. I tried to explain to him he only had to learn to drive (use) a computer and not how the internal bits worked. Nothing helped.
@mister kluge That wasn't really my point. My point is some people are afraid of change, they refuse to adapt, and frankly they do get left behind as a result. Sometimes you've just got to help yourself, can't go on relying on everyone else to pick up the slack for you.
Except that the Cerne Abbas Giant wasn't around in the Bronze Age. There's no actual consensus on when it was first carved, but it was no earlier than AD 700.
Interesting little detail - the figure on the bronze helmet is in fact the Cerne Abbas giant, a famous ancient figure carved into a Dorset hill! I live nearby, and we even have a brewery in its namesake.
I am an archaeologist. The thing about "not wanting to turn to bronze" may not be such a far fetch after all. We have artefacts of flint from the bronze age that are made to look like bronze artefacts. stones with casting marks on them, for instance.
"Hey, we've got some new smelters that can manage higher temperatures. We need to get them installed and people trained on them by Shamatsday." "What's wrong with the ones we've got? They make bronze just fine." "Yes, but they can't make this new stuff. They can't make IRON!" "Is iron better than bronze?" "Well no, but the ores are cheaper and we can get better margins."
Love the subtext here that sabre toothed tigers have been rendered extinct (at least locally) in living memory, based on -Man-That-Chips-Stone's exclamation of feat when he heard the beast mentioned.
Lots of people did, I think? If you didn't live in an area where lead, tin, or copper was abundant, you probably didn't discover smelting independently.
Iron ? Mate we over here has shot past Iron to the Steam Age. Mind you we have not a clue on how to make boilers and steam trains, because we dont know how to make Iron and Steel for them.
I'm an iron beta tester actually. It's pretty sweet, especially as we don't know where we're getting tin for the bronze. Unfortunately we've run out of sticks due to budget cuts (with bronze axes). Best guess is 1199 BC when it comes out
iron is already out, it's brittle as hell though, so stick to bronze, unless you want to listen to the true believers who keep promising some crazy iron-based alloy that will come out... some day. the dream is to have an all-purpose metal that won't require sailing to a rainy island in the far west to get tin
This pretty much sums up how the meeting went when the it director decided to announce to the software engineering team that everything was moving to powerapps. I wish I'd learnt tying to sticks.
Not a coincidence - RU-vid has no doubt infiltrated you with their spy network and sophisticated surveillance equipment network that cost more to maintain than they spend on anything else.
The conversation with my dad in Southern WV about coal. I understand both sides, but he is lucky. He can retire, he lived during the peak of coal production as a welder.
Except that coal isn't going away because of competition. It's going away because of political correctness. Politicians care more about appearing PC than about not putting thousands of people out of jobs and killing small country town. Why should they give a shit about people they never come into contact with.
It's actually a representation of the Cerne Abbas Giant, which is carved into a hill-side in Dorset. www.visit-dorset.com/things-to-do/cerne-abbas-giant-p133383
What the Bronzemongers won't mention is the coming and very mysterious Bronze Age Collapse! We've been using stone for a hundred thousand years, then bronze shows up on the scene and everything goes to pot. Coincidence, I think not!
This is actually a pretty good demonstration on how to convince traditional people on how to accept new technology. Basically new technology is going to take over old technology because it's just too damn useful.
The helmet decoration (for those mentioning it in the comments) is an actual engraving of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England. The original is a real geoglyph carved into the hillside there, so it's not a made up design for the show just to get laughs ;)
Erm.... I somehow doubt that it's an "actual engraving". Something tells me it's probably painted cardboard, unless they had a particularly big budget for this show.... which is possible, if unlikely.
@@omp199 The whole joke is about changing technology in a work force being received as tackily and poorly in the bronze age as in the modern day. Windows is a computer operating system. It's a pun with a little dash of metaphor. And the bronze window in the shot looks like the windows logo. I think it tracks, at least.
@@spehizle Thank you for explaining. It is an interesting idea. It doesn't quite work for me, though. Personally, I see it as making fun of people whose enthusiasm for a new technology is so completely over the top that even when they have exhausted all the genuinely useful ways of applying the technology, they just won't stop and will proceed to try to apply it to cases where it is clearly not useful. Since windows only work when they are transparent, it is clearly not sensible to make them out of something opaque. There is a connection to old jokes about square wheels and chocolate teapots, here, I think.
1:56 that's some mighty fine helmet on the bronze guy. Looks properly hard and big. With that badboy, dominating other clans and taking their women should be a walk in the park.
"Er yeah, when you say no more live music? my question is why not?" "Oh with the new corona virus live music and nightlife is a thing of the past!" "Right cos i'm a dj you see" "Right well i cant lie, djs are going the way of the labour party. Extinct - but have you thought about retraining as a programmer??"
In the transition period from stone to bronze tools, I'd still chip my bronze axe with stone to make it sharper. Find it hard to believe the already figured out how to use whetstone and other sharpening tools
Not only were stone tools sometimes sharpened by rubbing them on a rock, but so were horn, bone, antler, and wooden ones. I wouldn't even be surprised if grinding antlers to a point was how people figgured out flint knapping considering how often material like that is used to make sharp stones, so abrasive sharpening is a real contender for the absolute oldest tech people figgured out.
James Bachman is very under rated as a comic actor - he was brilliant on the kids' show Sorry I've Got No Head - and on numerous Radio 4 comedies. We should big him up a lot more. And speaking as a girl - I think he's really cute.
Most Government subsidised energy these days is actually fossil fuel energy. Solar and renewables are becoming so cheap that lobbyists from the coal companies have to get subsidies for their coal to remain competitive.
@@jarahfluxman20 you should really bother to actually Google a subject before trying to speak authoratively about it. Nevermind actually asking someone with a decent amount of expertise. No electrical engineer worth his salt is going to try to push the tired lobbyist propaganda about solar panels being economical without getting paid big fat lobbyist bucks. Over half the cost of gas is taxes levies against it which go towards subsidizing 'green' energy. Over half of the cost of that green energy is subsidized away. Even so, gas is still cheaper in many places, and more convenient everywhere. It's that kind of arrogance on the part of laymen that makes it so hard for those of us actually educated in the field to get real alternatives like nuclear and geothermal off the ground. People hear this nonsense about solar and battery power and the monetary waste of oil and conclude that all green energy must be equally fake.
@@chrisdelzell8467 this is the second time I've seen hostile shitty attitudes against "laymen" on youtube today. You should watch "Planet of the Humans". You should also wonder what happens when only people who can afford college vote democrat, and socialists pivot right out of spite for your cultural narcissism.
At first I thought, that by saying "working in fossil fuel industries" you meant Ancient people dying, being buried and thus turning into a fossil fuel over centuries
After the stone age came the copper age then bronze which contains copper but is harder when alloyed with tin. Bronze was much more useful than copper which wasn't much better than stone but you could at least make shields, pots, cups, anything really its flexibility was its key. Then the iron age replaced the bronze age since iron was more abundant than copper and tin plus it's a single element not an alloy.
Can't have bronze without trading for tin. Can't have trade without knowing where to find the other people. Can't be easily found without a steady place to stay. Can't stay in one place hunting and gathering, you'd run out of food eventually. While there might be places with plenty of huntable and gatherable food, you can't control population growth, so it will run out fast.
@@bramvanduijn8086 You can solve most of thse by trading with a setteled people, you know where to find them and they trade for the resources needed with other seteled people. You can rotate where you settle seasonally, and take care that the animal population is at replacement levels this way like we do with fish quotas in current era. Why could not the population be limited? Have you seen the rate of population growth at this time? It was not skyrocketing
