Wedge knife

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Large buckstone knife

Wedge knives (also hand ax knives or hand ax scrapers ) are a leading form of the Middle Paleolithic , typically the Micoquien (about 100,000 to about 50,000 BC / 45,000 BP ). They are a universal tool of the "classic" Neanderthals of the Würm Ice Age or the Vistula Ice Age . Occasionally they can already be found in sites of the Riss Cold Age. While hand axes are usually symmetrical and have two cutting longitudinal edges, wedge knives only have one cutting edge. They have a long cutting edge, mostly retouched on both surfaces. The opposite side is blunt and served as a handle. Wedge knives are generally smaller than hand axes. A distinction is made between several forms:

  • Bockstein knife: with a triangular outline, straight back and the same cutting edge (after the Bockstein forge in the Lone Valley , Baden-Württemberg).
  • Pradnik knife: with bent back, the cutting edge often seems to have been sharpened (based on findings in the Ciemna cave on the Pradnik river in the Ojców National Park , Poland)
  • Klaus niche type : only retouched on both sides in the cutting edge and tip area with a blunt, angled back
  • Volgograd type

Wedge knives were especially widespread in Central and Eastern Europe, less often in Western Europe. In France they are called Micoquien knives, in Eastern Europe as Pradnik knives. Important sites with wedge knives in Germany are, in addition to the sites that gave their names to the subtypes, the Balver Cave , Lichtenberg ( Lüchow-Dannenberg district ), Buhlen , Königsaue near Aschersleben , Salzgitter-Lebenstedt or the Armchair Rock Grotto near Essing . Because of the Leitform character, there is a suggestion in Central Europe to use the term wedge knife groups instead of micoquia . In addition, the wedge knives from the La Micoque site, which gives it their name, do not date to the Vistula Glaciation, but are much older , making the site unsuitable as a type of locality .

The functional concept of the wedge knife can still be observed today in the Ulu knives of the Eskimos , which, as metal knives, also have a convexly curved cutting edge and a wooden handle on the back.

literature

  • Joachim Hahn : Recognizing and determining stone and bone artifacts: Introduction to artifact morphology. Archaeologica Venatoria 10. 2nd edition. Tübingen 1993, pp. 191-193.
  • Olaf Jöris: On the chronostratigraphic position of the late Middle Palaeolithic groups of wedge knives. The attempt to delimit a Middle Paleolithic group of forms in their European context. Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission, Vol. 84, 2003, pp. 49–154
  • Olaf Jöris: Bifacially Backed Knifes (Keilmesser) in the Central European Middle Palaeolithic. In: N. Goren-Inbar / G. Sharon (eds.): Ax Age - Acheulian Toolmaking from Quarry to Discard. Approaches to Anthropological Archeology (Equinox London), 2006, pp. 287-310. * Dietrich Mania : The Middle Paleolithic camp site on Lake Aschersleben near Königsaue (North Harz foreland). In: Praehistoria Thuringica. 8, 2002, pp. 16-75
  • Jürgen Richter: The G-layer complex of the armchair rock grotto. To understand the micoquia. Armchair rock grotto III. Quaternary Library 7. Saarbrücken 1997.
  • Jürgen Richter: Moustérien and Micoquien. In: Harald Floss (Ed.), Stone Artifacts - From the Old Paleolithic to the Modern Age. Tübingen Publications in Prehistory, Kerns Verlag Tübingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-935751-16-2 , pp. 267-272

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ J. Richter: The 14C data from the chair rock grotto and the time of the Micoquien / MMO In: Germania. 80, 2002, pp. 1-22.
  2. ↑ Gerhard Bosinski : The Middle Paleolithic finds in western Central Europe. Fundamenta A / 4. Cologne & Graz 1967
  3. ↑ Jöris 2003
  4. ↑ Stephan Veil: A Middle Paleolithic site from the Weichsel ice age in the north German lowlands near Lichtenberg. Lüchow-Dannenberg district. Interim report on the archaeological and geoscientific investigations 1987–1992. In: Germania. 72, 1994, pp. 1-65
  5. ↑ L. Steguweit: Traces of use on artifacts from the hominid discovery site in Bilzingsleben (Thuringia). Tübingen works on prehistory, volume 2. Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2003, p. 84