The mechanical properties of wood and the design of Neolithic stone axes

IF 1.1 0 ARCHAEOLOGY
A. R. Ennos, J. A. Oliveira
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Abstract

Despite the importance of wooden tools for early man, and the development of woodworking in the Mesolithic and Neolithic culture, there has been surprisingly little research on how wood can be worked by stone tools or how wooden handles for composite tools were designed. This paper outlines an approach based on an understanding of the structure and mechanical properties of wood. The cell arrangement in wood makes it far less stiff, strong and tough across the grain, especially tangentially. This makes it hard to harvest wood or break it into lengths because it splits down its centre rather than breaking right across. Fortunately, this also makes wood easy to split along the grain, especially radially through its centre into sections and planks. A model of the splitting process predicted that wood is best split using blunt, broad but smooth wedges, as these would use less energy and would be less likely to get stuck in the wood. The predictions were verified in tests in which hazel coppice poles were split using wedges of contrasting angle, width and surface texture. The results help explain the change from the flaked flint Mesolithic tranchet axes to the broader polished stone Neolithic axe and adze heads. However, further experiments are also needed cutting wood obliquely to test this hypothesis. The splitting model also helps to understand the design of socketed axe hafts. Failure usually occurs when the handles split at the distal and proximal ends of the socket. To prevent this, handles are best designed with the growth rings parallel to the socket, and with an expanded head, especially with flanges on the distal and proximal ends of the socket. These designs are seen in some of the Neolithic axe handles that have been found in Britain, including the Etton, Ehenside and Shulishader axes. More experimental research is needed to understand the optimal way of hafting axe heads.
木材的机械特性和新石器时代石斧的设计
尽管木制工具对早期人类很重要,并且在中石器时代和新石器时代发展了木工,但令人惊讶的是,关于如何用石器加工木材或如何设计复合工具的木柄的研究却很少。本文概述了一种基于对木材结构和机械性能的理解的方法。木材中的细胞排列使其在纹理上,尤其是切线上,不那么坚硬、结实和坚韧。这使得砍伐木材或将其分成不同的长度变得困难,因为木材是从中心分裂而不是从中间断裂。幸运的是,这也使得木材很容易沿着纹理分裂,特别是通过其中心径向分成部分和木板。劈裂过程的一个模型预测,劈裂木材最好使用钝、宽但光滑的楔子,因为这样会消耗更少的能量,也不太可能卡在木头上。这些预测在测试中得到了验证,在测试中,用对比角度、宽度和表面纹理的楔子劈开榛木树干。这一结果有助于解释从中石器时代的燧石斧到新石器时代更广泛的抛光石斧和钝斧的变化。然而,进一步的实验还需要斜切木材来验证这一假设。劈裂模型也有助于理解嵌套斧柄的设计。失败通常发生在柄在关节窝的远端和近端裂开时。为了防止这种情况的发生,手柄最好设计成生长环与关节窝平行,并有一个扩展头,特别是在关节窝的远端和近端有法兰。在英国发现的一些新石器时代的斧头柄上可以看到这些设计,包括Etton, Ehenside和Shulishader斧头。需要更多的实验研究来了解斧头的最佳方式。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
自引率
10.00%
发文量
6
审稿时长
8 weeks
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