tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post7245463082027841227..comments2024-01-04T04:11:55.717+02:00Comments on Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog: Early farmers, woodworking, and climate changeDienekeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02082684850093948970noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-36196336922109622682012-09-16T23:22:04.051+03:002012-09-16T23:22:04.051+03:00You really don't need much in the way of tools...You really don't need much in the way of tools. An adze? Many cultures in my area used clam shells.<br /><br />Here's the axe-free girdling for you:<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBcgJlzsRQoShayanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07079111794180941158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-7293296158154757632012-08-13T04:42:01.716+03:002012-08-13T04:42:01.716+03:00"You just have to girdle the tree with a care..."You just have to girdle the tree with a carefully-tended fire. Then you may hollow it out with fire as well". <br /><br />But you still need an axe to chip away the charcoal as it forms. In fact most people who made dugout canoes did not rely totally on axes. They used fire to make the chopping easier. The same holds when it comes to hollowing out the trunk. Fire and adze. If you can show me that the locals in your area made dugout canoes using fire alone I would be prepared to accept your claim.terrythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17327062321100035888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-86143273903030058442012-08-12T12:37:10.802+03:002012-08-12T12:37:10.802+03:00"But almost certainly not before the time the..."But almost certainly not before the time the axes had been invented, during the Early Neolithic."<br /><br />Actually it is quite possible, and was definitely practiced by many cultures. You just have to girdle the tree with a carefully-tended fire. Then you may hollow it out with fire as well. This technique was used by many peoples, including the original inhabitants of where I live, who used it on Liriodendron tulipifera to make canoes. Given the amount of time hominins have used fire, I very much doubt this was a post-axe discovery.Shayanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07079111794180941158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-39860821554765577092012-08-11T05:34:06.839+03:002012-08-11T05:34:06.839+03:00"What about the Schoeningen spears? Fully fun..."What about the Schoeningen spears? Fully functional javelin-like spears from Germany dated to at least 300 ka which required skilled wood-working". <br /><br />I presume the paper is talking about tree trunks of reasonable size. It requires a lot less effort to make a spear than it does a house pole. <br /><br />"The Pacifc Northwest Coast cultures were never agricultural and those people felled huge cedars all the time. The built 80 foot ocean-going boats out of them, they split them for planks for longhouses and they carved whole trunks for totem poles in a lot of places" <br /><br />But almost certainly not before the time the axes had been invented, during the Early Neolithic.terrythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17327062321100035888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-21614844029121707402012-08-10T20:06:49.398+03:002012-08-10T20:06:49.398+03:00"Prior to the Neolithic period, there is no e..."Prior to the Neolithic period, there is no evidence of tools that were powerful enough to cut and carve wood, let alone fell trees."<br /><br />The Pacifc Northwest Coast cultures were never agricultural and those people felled huge cedars all the time. The built 80 foot ocean-going boats out of them, they split them for planks for longhouses and they carved whole trunks for totem poles in a lot of places, and they did all this until the beginning of the 20th century. It's not some obscure culture.Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07187836541591828806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-19548443808725478702012-08-10T12:21:08.152+03:002012-08-10T12:21:08.152+03:00Press release: "Prior to the Neolithic period...Press release: "Prior to the Neolithic period, there is no evidence of tools that were powerful enough to cut and carve wood". <br /><br />That's ignoring a lot of evidence! (But no statement like that is in the paper.)<br /><br />What about the Schoeningen spears? Fully functional javelin-like spears from Germany dated to at least 300 ka which required skilled wood-working.<br /><br />Or what about this: Domınguez-Rodrigo et al., 2001. Woodworking activities by early humans: a plant residue analysis on Acheulian<br />stone tools from Peninj (Tanzania). Journal of Human Evolution 40, 289–299Andrew Millardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08035606100093142182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-13068334667141592922012-08-10T08:34:19.558+03:002012-08-10T08:34:19.558+03:00"The results of microwear analysis of 40 bifa..."The results of microwear analysis of 40 bifacial artifacts from early Pre-Pottery Neolithic (EPPNB) levels at Motza in the Judean hills document changes during the PPNA–PPNB transition at the onset of the Levantine Moist Period (ca. 8000 cal B.C.) when conditions for agriculture improved. EPPNB villagers added heavy-duty axes to a toolkit they had used for carpentry and began to clear forests for fields and grazing lands". <br /><br />Ohh. And another thing <br /><br />"The results of microwear analysis of 40 bifacial artifacts from early Pre-Pottery Neolithic (EPPNB) levels at Motza in the Judean hills document changes during the PPNA–PPNB transition at the onset of the Levantine Moist Period (ca. 8000 cal B.C.) when conditions for agriculture improved. EPPNB villagers added heavy-duty axes to a toolkit they had used for carpentry and began to clear forests for fields and grazing lands". <br /><br />That places an earliest date for dugout canoes in the region, exactly as I've been trying to convince Maju for years. Until you can cut down a tree you can't cut it up.terrythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17327062321100035888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-30974275732920649502012-08-10T06:09:47.790+03:002012-08-10T06:09:47.790+03:00"In PPNB, the tools have evolved to much larg..."In PPNB, the tools have evolved to much larger and heavier axes, formed by a technique called polishing". <br /><br />Polished stone axes may first have appeared in New Guinea or in the nearby SE Asian islands as much as 35,000 years ago. Specifically Australia: <br /><br />http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CEQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fconnectingcountry.arts.monash.edu.au%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F09%2FEarliest-axes.pdf&ei=s3okULDmO86ziQeXsoGoBg&usg=AFQjCNFiEwegZKOdr3WLP2gBnEwu7RLseA<br /><br />""Intensive woodworking and tree-felling was a phenomenon that only appeared with the onset of the major changes in human life, including the transition to agriculture and permanent villages," says Dr. Barkai, whose research was published in the journal PLoS One. Prior to the Neolithic period, there is no evidence of tools that were powerful enough to cut and carve wood, let alone fell trees". <br /><br />And the same is true in the heavily forested region of South China and SE Asia. That region was most likely very thinly populated until the development of edge-ground axes and slash-and-burn agriculture. <br /><br />"Sustainable forest management continued for the duration of the PPN until the cumulative effects of tree-felling and overgrazing seem to have led to landscape degradation at end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC), when a cold, dry climatic anomaly (6600–6000 cal B.C.) may have accelerated the reduction of woodlands". <br /><br />An early example of human-induced climate change?terrythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17327062321100035888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-44606629743005253952012-08-09T23:17:58.715+03:002012-08-09T23:17:58.715+03:00http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/science/3000-yea...http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/science/3000-year-old-turkish-king-statue-demonstrates-iron-age-creativity.html?_r=1Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com