Shoe last wedge

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Shoe last wedges (front)

The shoe last wedge is a common name in archeology for the blades of prehistoric dechs . These consist of sanded rock, which as a form type belong to the characteristic devices of the linear ceramic culture (5500-4900 BC). Shoe last wedges of the Middle Neolithic ( stitch band ceramics , Rössen culture ) often have perforations. In the late Middle and Early Neolithic , the dominance of cross-edged adzes was replaced by hatchets and axes with parallel shafts.

term

The term was coined in the 19th century by archaeologists after the similarly removed appearing wooden strips of the shoemaker coined. As a terminus technicus , the word “shoe last wedge” is controversial among archaeologists, since some editors only use the term “adze” for the narrow-high type of ceramic tape. Other editors use the term quite deliberately to differentiate the narrow-high type of dikes from the flat hatchets (also incorrectly called "flat hoes"). The “shoe last wedge”, which is particularly typical for line and stitch ceramics, has a plano-convex outline in the side view. It has a convexly curved top and a flat bottom. In profile it is arched, rectangular or slightly trapezoidal. The neck opposite the cutting edge is mostly flat, while the cutting edge is wider than the neck and is usually convexly curved. The classic shoe last wedge has an asymmetrically arched edge. The also high-arched adze of the menhir culture (so-called menhir wedges ) differ in their symmetrical curvature of the cutting edge.

use

Use of shoe last wedges in wood processing, Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Thuringia (Weimar)

Neolithic dechs were primarily used for wood processing. The interpretation as hoes or ploughshare was refuted by Egon Henning at the beginning of the 1960s.

The size of the adze blades varies between miniaturized specimens (10 cm), which were used for fine processing, for example for hollow vessels (fountains from Kückhoven , Schleusnig) or for the production of wood connections. On the planks of the Bandkeramischer Brunnen von Altscherbitz you can often see traces of hacking from dechseln. Specimens between 25 and 40 cm in length appear ergonomically unsuitable as tools. Analogous to ethnographic models, for example from New Guinea , they are interpreted as objects of prestige. The weight, the depth of the shaft and the length of the unhandled part of the blade are decisive for the use in terms of impact force, depth and angle. Particularly wide specimens were suitable for felling trees. Narrow-high blades may have been used for rough work due to their stability and mass. These filigree blades were presumably used to create deep holes or grooves in the wood. The unhandled blade can be used as a chisel or wedge to split wood. The adze blade as a plane is also conceivable. The function can be changed by changing the relationship between the blade and the shaft, adding a handle or grinding the edge. The second processing of an adze blade is also possible. In fact, slightly damaged adze blades were thrown away because they were also used for fine work.

In addition to its use as a woodworking tool, its function as a weapon has also been proven. In the Talheim massacre (Baden-Württemberg) as well as in the Schletz trench (Lower Austria), a number of skull fractures can clearly be traced back to the fact that the victims were slain with shoelace wedges.

Raw material

Raw materials for ground adze blades can be metamorphic , volcanic and sedimentary rocks . In volcanics and sedimentites with an amorphous rock structure, material-related breaking is less common than in metamorphic rocks, which often have natural crystalline fissure surfaces .

Amphibolites were preferred as the raw material for ceramic band shoe last wedges , including metamorphic rock types of the actinolite - hornblende - slate group (abbreviation: AHS group ). Another common material is green slate , while phthanite (originating in Alsace and Belgium), as well as basalt or the so-called " Wetzschiefer " are rarer . For a long time, the Fichtel Mountains or the Bohemian Forest were assumed to be the origin of the widespread amphibolite in band ceramic find places in Germany , without any concrete mining tunnels being known. There are other deposits in the Saxon Ore Mountains and in the Black Forest . Only in 2001 were traces of the Neolithic mining of amphibolite (actinolite-hornblende-schist) discovered near Jistebsko, cadastre Jablonec nad Nisou in the Bohemian Jizera Mountains .

Geochemical investigations show that a considerable part of the ceramic adze blades were made from rock from this locality.

The finds, especially semi-finished products, from Hienheim "am Weinberg" provide information about the production of deches and hatchets. The artifacts revealed grinding, pecking, piercing, sawing and the most widely used striking techniques as machining methods. In metamorphic rocks, the longitudinal axis of the blades runs parallel to the rock structure. This shows that prehistoric stone carvers specifically produced raw forms for processing into dechs.

In addition to stone dikes, there were also modified metapods in the ceramic band culture , the shape of which indicates their use as adze blades.

Shaft

The polishing on adze blades allows conclusions to be drawn about the shaft. The "knee stile shaft" (acute-angled knots from ash, beech or oak) is typical. Obtus-angled shafts were seldom found, as in the Altscherbitz fountain made of ceramic tapes . Slightly trapezoidal, high and flat rectangular blades were shanked to the widest and highest point immediately after completion. Ideally, this is half the length. Resharpening changes this ratio and the blade can lose up to 50% of its length.

A discussion of adze blades as gouges or chisels has so far been based more on theoretical possibilities than on excavations. However, the traces on well planks of the band ceramic in the area of ​​the combing suggest the use of chisels.

In the case of old and middle Neolithic dechs, the use of intermediate feed made from red deer antlers is conceivable, but has not yet been documented as an excavation. Instead, only the blades are preserved, on the underside of which one-sided traces from the support on the spar can be seen. Flat axes with intermediate lining are often found in damp settlements of the early to late Neolithic , but there more in connection with so-called "wing spar shafts" and a vertical ax blade.

In rare cases, indications of the sharpening of shoe last wedges could be seen on the blades. It was always observed that the flat ventral side was connected to the spar, which shows up either as a color difference or as a transverse heel to prevent slipping. Jürgen Weiner and Alfred Pawlik argue convincingly on the basis of scuff marks in favor of the "knee stile stock", ie adze stiles made from acute-angled knots. The attachment to the stile was probably mostly done with textile fibers ( flax ) or bast fibers (here mainly linden bast).

Regarding the material for the winding, only one exception is known in the case of a shoe last wedge, which was found in 1877 as a grave in the Early Bronze Age burial mound of Leubingen . In the excavation report of 1878, the excavator Friedrich Klopfleisch described its winding as a strap, which, without further explanation, makes you think of leather. As Hennig rightly points out, however, leather straps are unsuitable for wrapping hatchets, as they widen and loosen the shaft due to the inevitable absorption of moisture in our climate. The secondary use of early Neolithic shoe last wedges in the Early Bronze Age has been documented several times, but in these cases they are interpreted more as status symbols and no longer as tools.

In the subsequent cultures of linear ceramics, especially in stitching ceramics , the Hinkelstein , Großgartacher , Rössen and Lengyel cultures , there were perforated shoe last wedges. These pierced adzes represent exclusively the narrow-high type and are differentiated as the shoe last wedge type from the Middle Neolithic flat axes. A specimen with a large shaft hole was found in the area of ​​the Goseck circular moat . Since the hole diameters are quite small in other cases, it is not yet clear whether they were used to hold the wooden shaft and whether such shoe last wedges were used as axes. If they were only used to fix the adze by means of cords or straps, the perforations can have been horizontal, so that then there is also an adze shaft with a transverse cutting edge. Alternatively, these perforated and usually very heavy shoe last wedges are interpreted as setting wedges .

Finding circumstances

Shoe last wedges are often found in usable condition as grave goods in band ceramic body graves, but here only in men. They are often found in fragments in cremation graves , as they were cremated with the dead as part of personal equipment. The perforated "double-edged (double-ax-shaped) dechs" are not cross-ax blades, but most likely club heads ("arm clubs"). A particularly large specimen with 37.7 cm comes from grave 185 (fire grave) of the ceramic necropolis of Aiterhofen , Straubing-Bogen district. Shoe last wedges also occur mainly as fragments in settlements, but there the proportion of flat axes is much higher than in the graves.

Adze blades (as a semi-finished product and in a completely ground shape) are numerous in hoard finds.

Occasionally adze blades can be found in the area of ​​the funnel cup culture of Northern Europe. It is probably imports. A tall, perforated example comes from Molbergen in the Cloppenburg district . It has a length of 23.5 cm and a width of 3.3 cm.

Parallel developments

Comparable tool finds are u. a. known from the Polynesian Islands . The blades, made from basalt, and on some islands also from the shell of the Tridacna gigas , have either a trapezoidal or plano-convex cross-section and some of them are very carefully ground. The blades were shanked in dechs and used in boat building until the 20th century.

literature

  • Corrie C. Bakels: On the adzes of the Northwestern Linearbandkeramik. Analecta Praehist. Leidensia 20, 1987, pp. 53-85.
  • Jens Lüning : The primeval forest is cleared with stone axes. In J. Lüning (ed.): Die Bandkeramiker, first stone age farmers in Germany. Rahden / Westf. 2005, pp. 44-49.
  • Pierre Petrequin, Christian Jeunesse: La hache de pierre. Carrière vosgiennes et échanges de lames polis pendant le Néolithique (5400-2100 av. J.-C.). Editions Errance, Paris 1995. ISBN 2-87772-108-6 .
  • Cornelia Catharina Bakels: On the Adzes of the Northwestern Linear Ceramics. In: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia. Vol. 20, 1987, ZDB -ID 210721-1 , pp. 53-86, English.
  • Jan Prostřednik, Britta Ramminger, Petr Šida: Adze blades from Jistebsko. In: Archeology in Germany. Issue 4, 2011, ISSN  0176-8522 , p. 54 f.
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ J. Weiner: On the technology of ceramic adze blades made of rock and bones. A contribution to the history of research. Archaeologia Austriaca, 80, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1997. pp. 115–156.
  2. ↑ a b Dieter Kaufmann: Economy and culture of stitch band ceramists in western Central Germany . State Museum for Prehistory, Halle / Saale 1976, ( publications by the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle, 30. ISSN  0072-940X ). Pp. 54-58
  3. ^ Rengert Elburg, Wulf Hein: Stone axes in action - cutting trees like 7000 years ago. In: Archæo 8, 2011, ISSN  1614-8142 , pp. 20-25. (Accessed December 28, 2012)
  4. ↑ Peter Walter, Rengert Elburg, Wulf Hein, Werner Scharff: Ergersheimer experiments on ceramic felling and woodworking technology. In: Platform 19/20, 2012, ISSN  0942-685X , p. At 89-94. (Accessed December 28, 2012)
  5. ↑ Egon Hennig; Thuringian University and State Library Jena, Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Weimar (Ed.): Investigations into the purpose of prehistoric shoe last wedges. Alt-Thüringen, 5, 1961. pp. 189-222.
  6. ↑ a b c Egon Hennig: On the reconstruction of the binding to Neolithic cross ax blades. Alt-Thüringen, 7, Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 1964/65, pp. 98-104.
  7. ↑ J. Wahl, H. G. König (Ed.): Anthropological-traumatological investigation of the human skeletal remains from the ceramic mass grave near Talheim, Heilbronn district. In: Find reports from Baden-Württemberg , Volume 12, Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1987. pp. 65–193.
  8. ↑ Jens Lüning: Basics of sedentary life . In: Traces of the Millennia. Exhibition catalog. Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-8062-1337-2 . Pp. 217-218.
  9. Jump up ↑ C. Arps: Petrography and possible origin of adzes and other artefacts from prehistoric sites near Hienheim (Bavaria, Germany) and Elsloo, Sittard and Stein (Southern Limburg, The Netherlands). In: Cornelia Catharina Bakels: Four Linearbandkeramik settlements and their environment. A palaeoecological study of Sittard, Stein, Elsloo and Hienheim. (= Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia. Vol. 11). University Press, Leiden 1978, ISBN 90-6021-427-7 , pp. 202-228 (English).
  10. ↑ Vladimír Šrein, Blanka Šreinová, Martin Šťastný, Petr Šída, Jan Prostředník: Neolitický těžební areál na katastru obce Jistebsko (A Neolithic mining area in the Jistebsko cadastre) . In: Archeologie ve středních Čechách . tape 6 , no. 1 , 2002, ISSN  1214-3553 , p. 91-99 .
  11. ↑ Blanka Šreinová, Vladimír Šrein, Martin Šťastný: Petrology and Mineralogy of the Neolithic and Aeneolithic Artefact in Bohemia . In: Acta Montana . Series: AB. Vol. 132, 2003, ISSN  0365-1398 , pp. 111-119 (English).
  12. ↑ A.-M. Christensen, PM Holm, U. Schuessler, J. Petrasch: Indications of a major Neolithic trade route? An archaeometric geochemical and Sr, Pb isotope study on amphibolitic raw material from present day Europe . In: Applied Geochemistry . tape 21 , no. 10 , 2006, p. 1635-1655 , doi : 10.1016 / j.apgeochem . 2006.07.009 (English).
  13. ↑ Britta Ramminger: Economic archaeological studies on ancient and middle Neolithic rock equipment in central and northern Hesse. Archeology and raw material supply . tape 102 . Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2007, ISBN 978-3-89646-374-6 (also: Frankfurt (Main), University, dissertation, 2005).
  14. ↑ Nicole Kegler-Graiewski: Axes - Axes - millstones. For the supply of raw materials in the Early and Late Neolithic in North Hesse . Cologne 2007 (Cologne, university, dissertation, 2007, full text ).
  15. ^ Cornelia Catharina Bakels: On the Adzes of the Northwestern Linearbandkeramik . In: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia . tape 20 , 1987, pp. 55 (English).
  16. ↑ Jürgen Weiner: On the technology of ceramic adze blades made of rock and bones - A contribution to the history of research . In: Archaeologia Austriaca . tape 80 , 1996, ISSN  1816-2959 , pp. 115-156 .
  17. ↑ a b Rengert Elburg: An adze blade with remains of the handle from the ceramic fountain in Altscherbitz. In: Work and research reports on the preservation of monuments in Saxony. Vol. 50, 2008, ISSN  0402-7817 , pp. 9-15 (accessed March 27, 2012).
  18. ↑ M. Dohrn: Considerations on the use of ceramic adze based on the signs of use. In: Find reports from Hessen. Vol. 19/20, 1979/1980, ISSN  0071-9889 , pp. 69-78.
  19. ↑ J. Gechter-Jones, D. Tomalak: Smarter than you thought: the adze blade, a "universal device". In: Archeology in the Rhineland. Vol. 15, 2001, ISSN  0935-9141 , pp. 176-178.
  20. ↑ Jürgen Weiner: Another experiment. For sharpening old Neolithic adze blades. In: Staatl. Mus. Naturkde u. Pre (Hrsg.): Experimental archeology in Germany. Arch. Mitt. Northwest Germany. Beih. 4, Oldenburg 1990. pp. 263-278.
  21. ↑ a b Jürgen Weiner and Alfred Pawlik: News on an old question. Observations and considerations on the attachment of ancient Neolithic adze blades and on the reconstruction of ceramic cross-ax spars. In: M. Fansa (arr.): Experimental archeology. Balance 1994. Arch. Mitt. Northwest Germany. Beih. 8, Oldenburg 1995. pp. 111-144.
  22. ↑ A. Grisse: New method of the metric and typological classification of stone axes and pickaxes of the Neolithic. Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hung. 60 (2), Akadémiai Kiadó, 2009. pp. 357–373.
  23. ↑ F. Bertemes, P. Biehl, A. Nothe, O. Schröder: The neolithic circular moat of Goseck, Ldkr. Weißenfels. Arch. Sachsen-Anhalt 2, 2004, pp. 143–144 + Fig. 15
  24. ↑ Clemens Eibner: On the nomenclature and ergological interpretation of the Neolithic setting wedge. Archaeologia Austriaca, 50, 1971. pp. 1-20
  25. ↑ Jens Lüning (ed.): Die Bandkeramiker. First stone age farmers in Germany. Pictures at an exhibition at the Hessentag in Heppenheim. Bergstrasse in June 2004 Rahden / Westphalia 2005. ISBN 3-89646-027-7 . P. 48.
  26. ^ Norbert Nieszery: Linear ceramic grave fields in Bavaria. Espelkamp 1995
  27. ↑ Jürgen Weiner: Profane devices or showpieces? Considerations for the intended use of oversized adze blades . In: J. Eckert, U. Eisenhauer and A. Zimmermann (eds.): Archäologische Perspektiven. Analyzes and interpretations in transition. (Festschrift for Jens Lüning on his 65th birthday). International archeology. Studia Honoraria, 20, Rahden / Westf. 2003. pp. 423-440.
  28. ↑ J.-P. Farruggia, The Adze. In: R. Kuper (Ed.), Langweiler 9. Pfeilspitzen, contributions to the Neolithic settlement of the Aldenhovener Platte II. Rhenish excavations 18. Bonn 1977, pp. 266–278.
  29. ↑ C. Mischka, The stone inventory of the ceramic band settlement Erkelenz-Kückhoven - morphology and function of stone tools. In: B. Wilksen (Hrsg.), The ceramic band settlement of Erkelenz-Kückhoven, district of Heinsberg. Rhenish excavations Volume 54, Mainz 2005, pp. 441-536.
  30. ↑ Erhard Schlesier: An ethnographic collection from Southeast New Guinea (=  work from the Institute for Ethnology of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . Volume 20 ). Edition Herodot, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-88694-160-4 .
  31. ↑ Elsdon Best : The Stone Implements of the Maori (= Dominion Museum Bulletin. No. 4, ISSN  0110-9979 ). J. Mackay, Wellington NZ 1912 (reprinted. Shearer, Wellington NZ 1974).