Knapping the way of old?

[Brian Curnel]

A topic I thought would be interesting was do you think that copper was used in Native times? Copper was available and was used in making lances and other tools but was it a tool employed to percussion flake chert or flint?

 

[Marts]

I was flintknapping with Will Lord last weekend and he stated that there is documented evidence for use of copper tips in antler punches for lithic use. He said that's why it isn't technically cheating to use them in traditional knapping.
There are a few working archaeologists on this forum who may be able to furnish exact examples

 

[Steven Saffold]

Oetzi, the perfectly preserved caveman found in germany, used an copper-tipped flaker.

 

[Longstrider]

It seems perfectly reasonable to expect and believe that copper was used. Whilst the people my have had the ability to produce copper, it is not a good metal for tool making, being far too soft. A flint tool would have a much sharper and stronger edge than could have been made from copper. Archeological evidence suggests that copper was being used by man well before the use of flint died out in favour of harder/stronger metals.

 

[Toddy]

The Egyptians carved some of their intricate stonework using copper chisels. The tool tips work harden but they also pick up and hold onto some of the fine grit of the stone they're working.
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/tools/chisel.html
There's a passage of hieroglyphs that translates to the scribes being told to turn their copper chisels into weapons.... spears and arrowheads.
The ancient world had a great deal of 'native', i.e deposits of pure copper available, it was one of the primary staples along with oil and cloth for trade.


Cheers,
Toddy

 

[lardbloke]

I think our ancestors would have used anything that came to hand. We always base our assumptions on what we would do in the present and try and explain it to what was done in the past (ethnoarchaeology). I studied flint working and related tool use (ancient and modern) during my University years. I looked at it from the perspective of the user and scientist, investigating the objects themselves i.e. how was it done. I used to trawl through endless papers on the complex physics of flint knapping and re-touch etc. Most of it can be explained with equations and mathematics to the point of obsession but it is the practical that really brings it to life. I have hardly every come across any copper objects within the archaeological record and the ones I have found are usually decorative rather than domestic functional. If I found a stump of copper, the odds of the handle surviving in the burial environment are remote. It would be passed onto the so called 'specialist' to stick it into some 'ritual' based collection to be lost in the museum archives. I had a colleague who studied ancient antimony in copper weapons. These were discovered in a Russian museum. The weapons produced were located from one source in an ancient burial. The copper weapons were spears and swords. After a detailed evaluation of the composition of the copper it was discovered that they were far too soft to be used in combat. The conclusion was, they were either ceremonial or used specifically for laying with the dead. Their original weapons were then re-used by the living.

I think in prehistoric times it would have been possible to carry a copper tipped implement to bash at the flint, but I cannot see it lasting that long. It is bad enough trying to chop wood with a copper axe never mind trying to flake flint. But I base this assumption on what has been found in ancient Briton and the composition being reproduced. There could have been tools that were very hard to the point of being used as general tools but we are as yet to find them (or by the time our ancestors did the technology had moved on).

Working with flint and related materials is no magic art, there are many archaeologists/anthropologists whom I know who can rapidly turn out beautiful Acheilian hand axes that could have come from yester year. It’s just a matter of knowledge of the product you are working with, patients, practise and a good aim.

 

[Steven Saffold]

Well I thought Oetzi used a copper flaker, but he did have a copper axe. I saw a couple documentarys on him and thought I saw a copper-tipped one. Guess I need to do more research.