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The Magnified Axe (part 2) - Ep 16
211 Plays8 months ago
Are you ready for another use(wear)ful episode? Then listen to part two of Ash and Tilly’s chat with special guest Dr Amber Roy, as they tackle the issue of how to classify a polished stone axe from the Bazkardum Society of Dwarfish History. How long have axes been used in human history? How can you tell what an axe was used for? And why is Tilly waiting for a carrier pigeon? Tune in to find out!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'And My Trowel'
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You have my sword. And you have my bow. And my trowel. Hi, you're listening to episode 16 of And My Trowel, where we look at the fantastic side of archaeology and the archaeological side of fantasy.
Meet the Hosts and Guest
00:00:19
Speaker
I'm Chilly. And I'm Ash. And this is part two of our discussion with special guest, Dr. Amber Roy. Hi.
00:00:29
Speaker
who are chatting all about the mighty axe.
Stone Axe Classification Dilemma
00:00:32
Speaker
So to recap on our current situation, we have this beautifully designed polished stone axe that two representatives from the Buzzcarverdorm Society of Dwarvish History need help with classifying. Now I did realize afterwards that I'm not sure exactly what issue they're having. They both strolled off so quickly after handing it over that I completely forgot to ask for further details. So I've now just sent a message by carrier pigeon to ask for more information
History of Axes from Paleolithic to Neolithic
00:00:56
Speaker
on that.
00:00:56
Speaker
While we wait for the answer, perhaps we could already talk a bit about the kind of general archaeology and history of axes. Yeah. For example, when did humans start using axes? You said Neolithic, but Amber, do you think it is at the very beginnings of time? Tell us. Axes have been used in various different forms for thousands of years.
00:01:18
Speaker
For instance, we can look at Paleolithic axes. From the beginnings of Homo sapiens and even Neanderthal species and other hominins have created large hand axes of various different forms and sizes.
00:01:36
Speaker
which is amazing. This is thousands of years of people coming up with ideas that we have an axe in a certain form, but it's when we get to the late Mesolithic and the Neolithic that we get the idea of a polished stone axe that is halved in the way that we often think about. That's when that really starts
00:01:56
Speaker
to appear. And then we also start getting developments in axes and they change and they get perforations, their blades and their butts expand, they get decorations. Yeah, lots of different things start happening as we end up travelling through prehistory. And so they sort of, if you say that they change and they always wear stone tools, but this one they specifically mentioned is a polished stone axe. So what does that mean? Does that mean there's different kinds of stone axes?
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah well all axes made of a ground stone are likely to be polished. If the axe is made of a material that can be napped such as flint or shirt or quartz then they sometimes are polished but often they are left in their more angular napped shape. But when it comes to more granular stones such as like igneous rocks
00:02:49
Speaker
then the process of making these axes is irrelevant whether it's going to turn into a beautifully curved battle axe or a very straight stone axe.
Polishing Techniques and Myths
00:03:00
Speaker
They would grind these axes against stone, possibly with a granular sand-like material and water. If you keep doing that, that will polish an axe. But also, if you rub an axe with a softer material such as leather,
00:03:16
Speaker
And that creates a really beautifully polished surface. And most axes made of a core stone will have been polished to some degree. And some are so unbelievably shiny. They're so beautiful. And people must have spent hours and hours polishing these. OK.
00:03:40
Speaker
Which is that related to kind of what they like? Well, I guess we'll get into this in a bit. But like, in terms of use, is that related to how polished they are? I mean, the certain things, do you need polished access for certain things where a more jagged one? Traditionally,
00:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, well, yes. In terms of use wear, for instance, if you are using an axe and there's a fracture and a flake of stone is removed, then the angular topography of that damage means that it's more likely to break again. So if you then grind it and polish it and make it smoother, it's less likely to fracture again. So that's like a functional aspect.
00:04:19
Speaker
of it. But traditionally, if an axe is really highly polished, it's seen as non-functional because people think, well, of course, someone spent such a long time making that look beautiful, they'll never use it. And that's actually really not the case at all.
00:04:36
Speaker
Okay, interesting. Yeah, no, very cool. Yeah, that's very interesting. And are axes universal?
Axes in Various Cultures
00:04:43
Speaker
Are they found in different or specific cultures, especially like in prehistory and stuff? Yeah, I mean, I think it's amazing that you can find axes across, I think across the world in prehistoric societies where people who haven't been in contact with each other
00:05:04
Speaker
start producing these forms on their own. But there are also some ethnographic examples of people in the last 100 to 200 years and various places in the world have made polished stone axes which look very, very similar to neolithic polished stone axes. And there are some museum collections that have both and they've got a bit confused in some places. So it's
00:05:31
Speaker
of thought, I think that naturally comes when people think about what they might need to use a certain material for. Yeah. And so they're very similar. The typologies are almost the same, but they're thousands of years apart. Yeah. I mean, for Neolithic polystone axes, which are very flat, then they are very similar. When you get axes like battle axes, then because these are very distinctive forms,
00:06:00
Speaker
that is quite regionally specific, then it's more difficult to find, say, something made in the last 200 years look the same as a middle Neolithic B battle axe.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, but then again, within prehistory, you do find similar
Trade and Distribution of Stone Axes
00:06:18
Speaker
things with perforated stone axes. So a simple shaft hole axe, they are found in context dating from the middle to late Mesolithic up until the late Bronze Age, all across Europe. And that's probably because it's quite a simple and obvious and very functional tool that most people will go, yeah, right, I mean, that's quite easy to use and make, we'll just do that.
00:06:45
Speaker
And then you also get things like the middle Neolithic B battle axes in Scandinavia, and then battle axes which are a little bit similar in early Bronze Age Britain, and that's a good thousand years later.
00:06:59
Speaker
Yeah. And so you just sort of mentioned that like, it's kind of, it's sort of, yeah, there's only so many ways to make an axe. Like it's kind of one of those universal tools. But do you think that everyone would have been able to make a stone axe? I mean, you've said that like all the polishing and everything would have taken lots of time. Now I know that this is a word that a lot of materials people hate hearing, but do you think there were specialists in the axe making or was it kind of something that everyone could have done? Yes, it would take a lot of time. But I think it's quite an easy skill. You don't need access to
00:07:29
Speaker
specific resources. That would change depending on if they're making access from a stone source that can be controlled, then that would change the access to resources. But in the scenario where there's no restrictions on that, then it's easy to get the things you need to make these. It's the kind of thing where you don't need to learn, say, how to smelt something, you don't need to learn chemistry and
00:07:57
Speaker
things like that, you can watch somebody and then give it a go. Which I guess changes probably when metal axes start to come into play because I guess with stone, everyone's doing kind of stoneworking or flint knapping and all that kind of stuff. But then once metal happens, then it might become a little more specialized.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah, there are many different elements that can contribute to things like this that you have to think about who has access to what resources and who's going to be controlling knowledge and all of these different things and whether they're making
00:08:32
Speaker
whether for whatever reason there's a set group of people making these items, even if it's easy to access resources and knowledge or not, or whether it's the kind of thing where anybody could make something, then that really changes it. But you can look at the stone to really work that out. Neolithic polished stone axes in Britain are made from very distinctive stone types of very specific sources, whereas
00:09:02
Speaker
early bronze age to battle axis in Britain are made from any kind of stone. They're going off to scree slopes and rivers and they're getting a bit of rock and they're going, oh, that looks about right. That's like the matrix is nice. I'm going to make something. And that's a completely different avenue of getting stone and can mean something completely different.
00:09:26
Speaker
Do you find that there's trade going on in these areas? Do you find that people are using stones from different areas that they do not live in and they're making these axes? Or is it only the resources that are in their environment and their landscape? For Neolithic stone axes, we find those from specific sources. For instance, there's a source in
00:09:50
Speaker
Lake District. It's a peak hypothetical that's a very, a stone quarry, essentially, at a very high point, and that's called Group 6. And axes made of Group 6 are found all across the UK. They're the most prolific axe group traded all over the place. From just one place? Yeah. Wow. And I mean, other rocks as well, you see Group 7 axes. They're made from a source in North Wales.
00:10:17
Speaker
and you see their distribution mostly slightly more locally within the North Welsh community, but then there are some that go further afield. There's a lot of work on the distribution of these, but there's no way that could have happened accidentally, and there was a lot of movement of these objects. But even British
00:10:40
Speaker
early Bronze Age stone battle axis. Some of those have clearly moved some way, so there's evidence of moving from south to west in Scotland and from north of England to south Scotland. So not across the entire country, but they are moving some distance, some of them. Wow, very cool. Yeah, that's super cool.
00:11:05
Speaker
So, Telly talked a bit about metal there and coming into the Bronze Age from the Neolithic and even into the Iron Age, and when you start to get different types of axes, what's the functional difference between stone and metal axes?
00:11:21
Speaker
So both stone and metal axes can be used in many of the same ways. So chopping and splitting wood both will be able to be used very easily
Stone vs. Metal Axes Comparison
00:11:31
Speaker
in the same way. But they are both very different materials and that actually means that the form they take
00:11:37
Speaker
And also the way that they are made really influences their form and it influences their use. So axes made of stone, often their blades are much wider than metal axes. And that means that metal axes can be used for much finer work, like chopping and shaping. Whereas a stone axe, you could do this for the same thing, but the traces you leave behind are going to be much wider and maybe not so accurate.
00:12:07
Speaker
or fine. So that may really influence the decision if you have a stone axe and a metal axe, which one you would use. But also, because stone axes tend to have slightly wider blades, and some of them also have quite nice wide butts, then they are much better than battle axes that are being used as hammers. Yeah, I was going to say that you could use it in different ways, yeah.
00:12:33
Speaker
And even some metal axes later on have that kind of thing, right? Where there's an axe on one side and a hammer on the other side, which I guess is then trying to copy almost the earlier stone axes, you could say, or is that completely wrong? Yeah, possibly. Or they've just identified that it would be useful to have a hammer end.
00:12:53
Speaker
I mean, it's always useful to have a hammer around. Right, you have those nails, like a hardware box. Yeah, like a soft palated hammer, like, yeah.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Especially if you're building things or you're doing just general life, I think it's probably a good thing to incorporate a hammer somewhere. Tilly, I think the pigeon has come back. Oh, excellent. Okay, well, let's just take a very quick break while I read the reply and we'll be right back. Okay, I'm back and I have a little bit more information from the Bas Cardum Society of Dwarvish History.
00:13:34
Speaker
Oh, great. So basically, they don't know whether to classify this object as a weapon or as a tool. So they have two exhibitions currently planned in their community center. They have a display for those objects associated with like battles, fighting, you know, big power and ceremony. And another display for those objects associated with like mining tools, more functional sort of everyday objects. And apparently deciding
00:14:00
Speaker
which one to put this historic stone axe in has caused quite the debate within the society. So, Amber, how can we actually tell what this axe was used for? What method do you use?
Microware Analysis in Archaeology
00:14:13
Speaker
Microwore analysis is a really brilliant method to work this out. What is? So, microwave analysis is the use of a microscope or different types of microscope to look at the traces left behind from an object's life.
00:14:30
Speaker
which could be from manufacture, its use, its treatment, its storage. And then we can think of many examples in our kitchen, for instance, where we could look at the lives of objects. If we think about our cutlery drawer, take out a knife and imagine when that knife was new, it was nice and shiny and brand new. And then now it's probably covered in loads of scratches.
00:14:55
Speaker
And that's from like cutting things up and movement in the cutlery jaw, banging against other pieces of cutlery. And you know, that's useful, that's micro wear.
00:15:05
Speaker
And we can look at these traces, we can see microscopically, we don't need a microscope, but if we did look at a knife under a microscope, we'd see even more traces. So that's what I do and many other archaeologists do to zoom into these microscales on objects and see what has been left behind from all the different interactions that objects have with people and other objects. And you can still see those traces even after like thousands of years.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's quite amazing. Sometimes things like stone, sometimes they're very weathered, and that removes traces. But often, if it's not, if they're not too weathered, then there are amazing traces left behind that can tell you so much information. And when we don't have any other information about these objects, then we can, we can work out, you know, what actually happened. And we can then use that to learn about the people who interacted with those objects.
00:16:04
Speaker
Very cool. That's very cool, very cool. But what equipment do you need to look at U-Swear? How do you do it? It's really essential to have a microscope. A good method to use is to try and use both low and high power microscopes. So a low power microscope would be a serio microscope, and then
00:16:27
Speaker
Additionally, using a high-power microscope, such as something like a metallographic microscope, something that can go up to, say, times 200 times 300, then you can zoom in really far and see things like the polish left on objects. And if you try and look at polish, then you can identify things like contact material, which is a little bit harder to identify at lower magnifications.
00:16:52
Speaker
But it's essential to go between low scales and high scales in magnification because you get to see different types of use wear. And you said contact material. So what do you mean by literally what it has come in contact with? Yeah, yes, exactly. So what kind of stuff would you see there? So if a stone has been in contact with wood,
00:17:18
Speaker
then it would leave a specific type of polish. Of course, if it had been in contact with wood for like one second and nothing more, then it probably wouldn't leave very many traces. Say if you use an axe to chop wood for
00:17:33
Speaker
for half an hour you're definitely going to find a nice bit of polish and wood polish on stone tends to create a domed appearance on the top of stone grains and when this is quite developed it forms like a sort of domed plateau that's very smooth and has a directionality so it follows a certain direction and has parallel striations through it that follows this direction and that's quite indicative of contact with wood.
00:17:59
Speaker
That's really, really cool, isn't it? That you can gleam that piece of information from that. And what can you do with that information? Well, I mean, really that's essential to the work out if something was used and how it was used. And being able to identify the contact material can
00:18:17
Speaker
But for instance, if we don't do high power analysis and we're looking at something at lower magnifications, we can say, oh, this has parallel striations on both blade edges. It was probably used with a chopping motion. And
00:18:33
Speaker
the high topography of the stone grains is slightly rounded, maybe it's a medium hardness contact material. And that could be wood, but there are other examples that are of a medium hardness. And then if you look at polish and the higher magnifications, that can give you more information for what kind of medium hardness contact material. And then we've got two things. Oh, that was in contact with wood and it was used in a chopping motion.
00:18:58
Speaker
I was wondering what they were doing. And how do you know what material it was used on? Like, I assume you can't just look at a piece of stone and be like, aha, this was clearly, you know, Sherlock style. This was clearly used on any piece of wood. Like, what do you know what those traces are? His name was Dorothy. And Robin was singing on a nearby branch. Yeah.
00:19:27
Speaker
Well I mean it takes a lot of time to look at objects that have been used in experiments.
00:19:33
Speaker
So experimental reference collections, and then you have something and you know exactly how long it's been used for and how it's been used and what content material. And it's developing this knowledge of, I mean, I have this, this image reference collection in my brain now from just looking at so many different things, that when you look at something under a microscope, it's so much easier to then go, ah, yeah, I think it might be that. But then I also come across stuff that I haven't seen before.
00:20:01
Speaker
And then then that's exciting. And I have to think about different possibilities and try and find other places where people might have found that also or
00:20:11
Speaker
or think about an experiment that needs to happen. Because of that, because you need to have that little reference collection in your head, does that mean that you have to be specialised in a particular material? For example, could you also look at metal axes and be like, yes, I also know what these we use on, or is it very material-specific?
00:20:34
Speaker
To some extent, it's material-specific, but in my training as a useful analyst, I trained in lots of different materials and then I focused on stone. So, if you are a useful analyst, it wouldn't be that hard to then say, oh, I actually want to start looking at bone.
00:20:56
Speaker
And the background knowledge and the skills are there to then look at a reference collection and pick things up quite easily. So you just have to make sure you know. It's a transferable skill tool. Hey, hey. I mean, I'm not sure you could go to like a job interview about like marketing and say, hey, I have these transferable skills. I can look at your stone and your bowl. It depends on what you're marketing.
00:21:26
Speaker
And I mean, you mentioned that, you know, sometimes you come across things that you haven't seen before. How do you know what experiments to
Building Reference Collections
00:21:35
Speaker
do? Like, do you just sort of pick randomly like, right, axes were probably used on these materials, so we do it? Do you have like, I don't know, archaeological, some kind of archaeological evidence that you can use it on? Or I mean, Neolithic is prehistory, so I guess you wouldn't have written records. So how do you plan the experiments for the reference collection?
00:21:54
Speaker
It's a bit of everything. It's useful to do some useful analysis to see, oh, I think this, you know, it was in contact with Word, it was used in similar motions, and then you can design experiments around those hypotheses that you create from the traces.
00:22:10
Speaker
That's a useful scenario, but also it's quite, you sort of think about how people lived in the past and what kind of things that we have evidence for them making, and using that as a way to think, oh, okay, could you use an accent this way? And could you use an accent that way? And there are many different ways you could create an experiment. I mean, the possibilities are endless. I would love to just spend days and days and days and days and days using axes in so many different ways. I mean, that sounds so much fun.
00:22:46
Speaker
So what's been your best experience with micro air analysis, like within your own research?
Ceremonial vs. Functional Axes
00:22:53
Speaker
I think this definitely goes back to fighting against these traditional interpretations that axes are purely ceremonial. And I've shown
00:23:01
Speaker
from doing work on Neolithic polished stone axes from Britain, early Bronze Age stone battle axes and axioms from Northern Britain, and then now my current project looking at Middle Neolithic B Scandinavian battle axes. In all these cases, I've been able to use micro or analysis to say these were utilitarian functional tools and the idea that they are non-functional and purely ceremonial
00:23:26
Speaker
is incorrect and actually there's probably many more complex reasons why these objects might end up in context scene of ceremonial such as burials and that I think is the most exciting thing.
00:23:40
Speaker
to me. That is very exciting. I mean, me and Tilly, we always talk about how, well, I think every archaeologist talks about how burials are not for the dead, therefore the living. And yeah, that what's in there represents something else. But yes, it doesn't mean that it wasn't
00:23:56
Speaker
use and it's really really important to break down these older stereotypes that we have around different archaeological material otherwise we just don't learn we don't do archaeology do we it's all about collecting information so yeah that that's really yeah exactly
00:24:12
Speaker
It's also, I think it just shows how much we as archaeologists can very easily jump to assumptions and we can use our modern lived experiences to interpret the past and actually people in the past they probably thought about things very differently to us, they interpreted things differently. They also had their own lived experiences and they lived in a world very different to ours.
00:24:34
Speaker
So we have to really think outside the box and try and use different methods to be like, well, what actually was happening? Because it's probably not what we automatically think of. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and especially in this case, because we're in a fantasy universe. So there's even another step like of removal that we have to, you know, take in terms of our interpretations.
00:24:55
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, fantasy is a wonderful way of actually opening up our eyes to other possibilities. There are so many fantasy worlds that have been created and are being created. And these these think outside the box. And being able to look at fantasy and then go, Oh, maybe I can apply this to our political thought was actually very useful.
00:25:22
Speaker
Well, so I agree indeed. I think that microware or use for analysis and experiment, I think that sounds like the absolute best method that we can apply to this thing. And I'm not at all biased in this decision either in that respect.
00:25:39
Speaker
But so, Amber, seeing as you're here, and yes, I do do microanalysis as well, but not on axes and haven't done it on Groundstone for a while. So, I think, Amber, it might be the best seeing as you're here and you're an expert in this particular object and material and kind of time period-ish, I guess, in question. Would you be able to have a quick look at the stone axe and just, you know, let us know what you think? We have a microscope over there for you. Of course, we'd be very happy to do this.
00:26:07
Speaker
Great, okay, but before you do that, do you have anything that you'd like to share with our listeners? Perhaps you've got some exciting projects that are coming up or in future for you?
Dr. Roy's Future Projects
00:26:18
Speaker
I will be finishing my current project in September, so watch this space with some publications, possibly some articles, maybe a book, I've not quite decided yet. So that's coming up.
00:26:30
Speaker
That's very exciting. I also organise an experimental archaeology research group here at Stockholm University and we have an exciting workshop in April where we're going to design various different experiments from different points of view. So that's something exciting that we're going to be doing. Because my current project ends in September, I've been planning and submitting grant applications for new projects. So funding for missing hopefully
00:26:57
Speaker
At the end of the year I'll be starting a new project exploring zoomorphic stone and slate axes and daggers. These are so exciting. You can get these stone axes that have bare heads engraved up and slate daggers with elk heads on the ends of their handles. They're amazing. So hopefully I'll be able to do a project on those.
00:27:15
Speaker
Hang on. This is all new to me. Where? What time period? These are possibly late Mesolithic and Neolithic. And they span mostly across northern Fennoscandia, so Norway, Sweden and Finland. But you find a few of them going slightly further south. And then you find some other kind of zoomorphic stone objects in the countries around the Baltic Sea and the Neolithic.
00:27:42
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's very cool. That's so cool. Let's just no doubt for a second, like that's so cool. So you're gonna come back and tell us all about that? Yeah, we'll have to do another episode about that. Yeah, definitely. Sounds good.
00:27:58
Speaker
Well, well, I think that that's about it for this episode of and my
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:28:02
Speaker
trial. We hope you enjoyed this quest issue scenario problem. Thank you so, so much to Amber for helping us out with this particular problem. It was really great to have you join us. And we've definitely learned a lot. So thank you. Oh, it's been so great. I've really enjoyed this. Hopefully I can come back and talk about some
00:28:17
Speaker
elk heads and other accents with interesting ends. You've said it live now, like on it's recorded. We have your promise. I better get the funding for the project. Well, good luck with that. Wishing you all the best.
00:28:34
Speaker
And yes, thank you to everyone here for listening. In the meantime, until our next episode, we are always looking for new episode ideas. So please, if you have any suggestions for us, do get in contact via email or social media. All of our contact information, as well as all of the information on what Amber is doing in her research and several of the studies that have been chatted about today can be found in the show notes. Hi Tilly.
00:28:57
Speaker
I was just looking through these boxes and I found something else that's a little bit weird. Oh, are those teeth? Yeah, they are, but they're kind of long and strangely pointed. You know what? I think I know someone who might be able to help us with those.
00:29:21
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.