Hallo everybody!
Perhaps this is the wrong section of the forum, for that it's about primitive weapons, and the tool I'm presenting you belongs to an age in which only 70'000 people lived in the whole Europe, and surely nobody had interest in killing someone other. So, it is not a weapon.
But I've seen so many nice reproductions around here, made by skillfull artisans, that I'd really like to show this one, to get tips from them
I really like Paleolithic Age, and 10kms South of my town there's the most ancient archaeological site of the whole region, dating about 100'000bp. There've been found a lot of amygdalas, even huge ones, and this, along with my studies in prehistory, made me think that this tool is the true representative of that era. Then I decided to make my own one!
Let me show how I did with some pictures - and sorry if they're many, but I hope they may explain better than my rusty English does
- STEP ONE... choosing the flint!
I really like walking out in the wild, observing the nature around me, and I've trained my archaeological eye with months of reconnaissance in forests and fields. One day I was walking along the beach, not far away from the Paleolithic site I mentioned above, when my eye was captured by a strange piece of flint. It had a nice blue color, and its shape reminded me of an amygdala. I was knapping a lot these days, and I noticed the perfection of that flint: it was not damaged by compression, so I took it. It had some signs of knapping, and was very levigated, perhaps by the action of the sea. Howewer, I took it at home, and waited days before starting knapping it: if it was an ancient relic? Perhaps the work-in-progress of an amygdala? Then I tougth that this was nearly impossible, I should have been too lucky to find one, and decided to begin knapping. But I made some pics of the flint, just in case...
The flint, as I've found it: imagine an amygdala, isn't similar?
...and one of the knapping signs on it! It even had the right patina...
...other signs of knapping!
- STEP TWO... less talk, more knap! I said, and then I began, using only three instruments: a stone hammer, that I use to break flint nodules before knapping them, my loyal piece of sandstone, which is very reliable for knapping, and a cow bone, which is old and strong enough to do the final knapping.
Here's the first step: you see the core in the right, and some rough blades I made by knapping, and which I tought to be useful for other tools. At the top there're the sandstone and the stone hammer.
After some time of knapping, the flint got the right shape: now it just needs to be sharpened...
...here's what I meant
- STEP THREE... to strut about!
I'm joking, but here's the picture of my amygdala, at the end of the knapping progress:
do you like it?
It's very sharp, deadly for trees; it has sawn 4 of them, and here's "his" first victim
I'm now training myself to make wooden javelins with just this amygdala and a stone blade; I've made 2 and am waiting for other 2 to dry out before I make the point.
After having knapped it, I showed the picture of the core to a teacher of mine, and he told me that it was, effectively, an archaeological evidence - I showed him the amygdala and when he saw the ancient knapping signs that survived on it, he confirmed his theory.
But, if it's really true, I have no regrets: someone started the knapping sometime a lot of centuries ago, and I had the luck to finish his job.
Here are some original amygdalas of about the same period (100'000bp) of mine: confront them with my one and tell me if you think they are similar.
And please, give me any tip you have!
It's one of the two ways of learning - the other is practice
Hope you enjoyed looking at my pics as much as I enjoyed making their subject!
Greetings,
Mauro.
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My first amygdala!! (Read 3756 times)
