Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (2.1972/1975)

Fig. 1. Seven paddle-shaped spades and a digging st ick of the heavy type, excavated near Kindeng at the
Wahgi river (arranged by the shoulderparts). Presumably prehistoric. Measured 1:10 by Ax. S. 1968.


Sieben schaufelfbrmige Holzspaten und ein Grabstock des kraftigen Typs. Sie wurden in der Nahe von
Kindeng am Waghi-Fluss ausgegraben -vermuthlich sind sie prahistorisch. Abgemessen von Ax. S. 1968.
Massstab 1:10.

OBSERVATIONS ON SPADE-CULTIVATION
IN THE NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS

By

Grith Lerche and Axel Steensberg

Prehistoric spades made entirely of wood have
been found in different parts of the Ancient
World from Norway in the Northwest to the
Altai Mountains of the USSR in the East. Some-
times they were presumably mistaken for pad-
dles because they were of a similar shape. But
paddles are normally made of light wood whilst

these spades were manufactured of oak or some
other heavy kind of wood (Steensberg). People
were often confused by the fact that dug-out
boats and paddle-shaped spades happened to be
found in the same bog or swamp, though not in
close connection with each other. However, in
New Guinea as elsewhere it was an ancient