DOI Artikel:
Lerche, Grith: Double paddle-spades in prehistoric contexts in Denmark
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49000#0117
DOUBLE PADDLE-SPADES IN
PREHISTORIC CONTEXTS IN DENMARK
By
Grith Lerche
Wooden artifacts are a neglected group in the
archaeological literature whereas finds of
metal, ceramics, and textiles have been re-
peatedly described. It is not that manufac-
tured wood has not been excavated, since
stockades, bridges, roads, ships, wagons,
ploughs, yokes, hand-tools, domestic uten-
sils, as well as wooden sculptures belong to a
very numerous group of relics of our prehis-
toric heritage. But the problems of preserving
and storing large wooden constructions have
often resulted in the preservation of only a
sample of the whole construction in the
stores. Until now it has mostly been ships and
ploughs that have been fully preserved and
satisfactorily described. Hand-tools are often
just mentioned while the description of their
use in their prehistoric context is neglected.
Cooperation between different sciences
would have been profitable in interpreting
their use. The archaeologists should be famil-
iar with good descriptions of the construction
and use of recent hand-tools related by eth-
nographers and anthropologists from rural
communities or as practised by craftsmen in
un-developed countries as well as with the arts
and crafts of European peasant communities.
But unfortunately for some decades an-
thropologists have studied primarily kinship,
social life and the organization of com-
munities, which is an important part but only
a part of peoples’ daily life. A description of
the structural form and function of man’s
material culture is a fundamental component
in the understanding of man and his work. To
describe those components need not lead to an
“unreadable catalogue” — as the American an-
thropologist Dr. Karl Heider says in his book
on “The dugum Dani” (1970). If it does it is
only due to a lack of understanding because
the scholars involved have never handled such
tools and therefore lack practical experience in
this field of knowledge. But even an unskilled
observer should be able to penetrate the pro-
cesses that are going on, if he has been prop-
erly trained in this kind of field-work from his
university.
Nine years ago when I studied hand-tools
in a great number of Danish museums, I came
across a large group of wooden implements
the shape of which was similar to a double oar,
and in fact they were interpreted by ar-
chaeologists as oars belonging to the dug-out
canoes frequently found in Danish bogs.
However, the blades were often of unequal
length, and on closer inspection I observed
distinct marks of resharpening and wear on
some of them. Consequently they had been
used for digging in a harder and more compact
element than water. Presumably they were a
kind of spades furnished with one blade at
each end, and may be termed double paddle-
spades - a term chosen to avoid confusion with
two-pronged or forked wooden spades,
known from Norway since Viking times.1 A
further interpretation of their use and the
PREHISTORIC CONTEXTS IN DENMARK
By
Grith Lerche
Wooden artifacts are a neglected group in the
archaeological literature whereas finds of
metal, ceramics, and textiles have been re-
peatedly described. It is not that manufac-
tured wood has not been excavated, since
stockades, bridges, roads, ships, wagons,
ploughs, yokes, hand-tools, domestic uten-
sils, as well as wooden sculptures belong to a
very numerous group of relics of our prehis-
toric heritage. But the problems of preserving
and storing large wooden constructions have
often resulted in the preservation of only a
sample of the whole construction in the
stores. Until now it has mostly been ships and
ploughs that have been fully preserved and
satisfactorily described. Hand-tools are often
just mentioned while the description of their
use in their prehistoric context is neglected.
Cooperation between different sciences
would have been profitable in interpreting
their use. The archaeologists should be famil-
iar with good descriptions of the construction
and use of recent hand-tools related by eth-
nographers and anthropologists from rural
communities or as practised by craftsmen in
un-developed countries as well as with the arts
and crafts of European peasant communities.
But unfortunately for some decades an-
thropologists have studied primarily kinship,
social life and the organization of com-
munities, which is an important part but only
a part of peoples’ daily life. A description of
the structural form and function of man’s
material culture is a fundamental component
in the understanding of man and his work. To
describe those components need not lead to an
“unreadable catalogue” — as the American an-
thropologist Dr. Karl Heider says in his book
on “The dugum Dani” (1970). If it does it is
only due to a lack of understanding because
the scholars involved have never handled such
tools and therefore lack practical experience in
this field of knowledge. But even an unskilled
observer should be able to penetrate the pro-
cesses that are going on, if he has been prop-
erly trained in this kind of field-work from his
university.
Nine years ago when I studied hand-tools
in a great number of Danish museums, I came
across a large group of wooden implements
the shape of which was similar to a double oar,
and in fact they were interpreted by ar-
chaeologists as oars belonging to the dug-out
canoes frequently found in Danish bogs.
However, the blades were often of unequal
length, and on closer inspection I observed
distinct marks of resharpening and wear on
some of them. Consequently they had been
used for digging in a harder and more compact
element than water. Presumably they were a
kind of spades furnished with one blade at
each end, and may be termed double paddle-
spades - a term chosen to avoid confusion with
two-pronged or forked wooden spades,
known from Norway since Viking times.1 A
further interpretation of their use and the