Tool types, fire, woodworking and woodland

management; parameters of ancient techniques and prospects for further research

Dr Linda Hurcombe

University of Exeter

June 2014

Why wood and where does it lead?

Trees as

•major timber,

•roundwood

•branches,

•roots,

•bark,

•bast

Wood as part of ‘The Missing Majority’ many products, not just one

• Traditional structures, traps and boats made from wood

• Tools and methods of working wood in the stone age

• Cordage and flexible wood products

• Management of trees and plants

Different kinds of wood used within

structures

5

wood can be a ritual material

Eg ‘Seahenge’, UK

Timber circle 6.6m (21 ft) diameter, 55 oak posts, ; originally up

to 3m (10 ft) high; with a central upturned tree stump.

Made from 15-20 oak trees felled in Spring or early Summer

2049 BC.

The wood surfaces showed the use of as many as 50 axes at a

time when they would only have been available for a few

generations.

Everyday life for food and crafts: using wood as tools or as hafts and handles and working wood studied via usewear analysis

7

Tool types

Edge tools of the period to work wood

Steel, iron, bronze, copper edge tools offer different opportunities from one another

Polished stone, chipped stone, antler, bone and wood also differ from one another

8

9

Experiments

Kierikki 2013-2014

Some of the tools

used to work wood

Experimental Archaeology:

interacting range of approaches

Realistic experiment with many interacting variables: less intensive records but

broadscale results

Intermediate

Highly controlled experiment: intensive record keeping giving detailed results

10

Building a log boat 2013: chipped stone, polished stone, antler and charring Testing a logboat Making fish weirs Part of the traps trail

Kierikki Museum has a section of a

prehistoric fish weir on display.

A small section was replicated copying the two different weave structures.

Launching ‘kuikka’ in

2013

13

Kierikki 2014

14

Further shaping

15

16

New trials 2014

Heat, burning

Bend to shape,

Alter behaviour properties

Assist reduction and shaping

17

18

all the participants used

different tools and

individually reviewed their

effectiveness on fresh,

seasoned, and charred

wood

Wood treatment

• Splitting

• bending

• Burning

• Slow grown wood shapes

• Slow split planks

19

Bentwood as frames and handles

20

cordage

21

Yew withies

made by Tom

Monrad Hansen

and used in the

manufacture of a

reconstructed

bronze age sewn

plank boat National Maritime Museum

Cornwall, Falmouth, UK

Cornwall and the Sea in the

bronze Age AHRC

‘Morgawr’ 2013: a reconstruction of a sewn plank boat c2000 BC

24

Bast fibres

Can be peeled off

in spring

May need further

soaking or retting

depending on the

species

management for crafts

25

‘withies’ are usually willow

For Willow technologies

Season of harvest

Storage

Flexibility

Management of the tree to

obtain good withies

for the yew withies also

Grip, flex, ‘threading’ ability

Behaviour when stitching

Behaviour in the boat at sea

27

Using living trees and shrubs see Hurcombe 2014 chapter 2

Replica of bast fibre net Kierikki

28

Doing the sums

Making large woven or cordage items requires large quantities of good raw materials

• a gill net for fishing can take over 60,000 stalks

•A special flower basket over 1, 000stalks (Andersen 2005)

Harvesting and then processing resources takes a lot of time: managing them may improve the quality and save time

30

Collaborative Projects

• Lipid residue analysis

• Air qualities in structures

• cordage

• storage

• Management of resources

• Boats

• Perishable craft practices

31