Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (6.1988/1991)

162

NIALL D. K. BRADY

variety of subtypes can be recognised, it is
probable that the Tuura, had a range of uses
but that they did not come into being because
of a preconceived agricultural need (Huurre
1981, 213-214). That they first appear in the
Mesolithic, in a hunter-fisher economy, in-
dicates that a primal use in agriculture is un-
likely. The period of their developed form,
the Middle Neolithic, is not within what Hu-
urre terms the “big summer of the Stone
Age” (c. 5500-2500 B.C.), but still the climate
was warmer and more humid than today
(Huurre 1983, 57-58). In such an environ-
ment, the spread of agriculture is facilitated
and an adaptation of the Tuura to ardshares
may be envisaged. It is perhaps worth men-
tioning that in today’s cooler climate barley
can be cultivated as far north as 70 degrees
latitude (Darnell 1981, 173) (fig. 1). Thus, the
shares may be seen as a mid-Neolithic phe-
nomenon derived from a tool form which had
an older local ancestry which was possibly a
basis for other specialised implements.
Looking outside the North Bothnian area,
stonebarshares are found predominantly on
Orkney/Shetland and they are beginning to
be recognised in Ireland (Brady 1990). Tradi-
tionally the Northern Isles have had a strong
Nordic influence. It would be an interesting
debate to examine what, if any, relationship
the Nordic assemblage had with that on Ork-
ney/Shetland, particularly as both are be-
lieved to have flourished contemporaneously
(Rees 26-28; Darnell 169).
The possibility of other stone shares types
from Finland should be borne in mind. Out-
side the greater potential within the Rova-
niemi Ruura, it is possible that other areas of
Finland used different stone and implement
forms (Huurre 1983, 214). Meinander sug-
gests that a Neolithic axe type, the so-called
Kapeaterdinen Kirves, or narrow-bladed axes
were used in ploughing (Meinander 1954, 98-
100). However, the writer has been able to



Fig. 6a. Suggestions for reconstructions of stone
ard shares in bow ards (after Rees fig. 39) b. Con-
jectural working construction (after Reynolds),
c. Swiddenards (Schwendhaken) (after Vilkuna
fig. 4a) and suggestions for reconstructions of
stone ard shares in swiddenards. □ Vorschlage fur
die Anbringung von steinernen Scharen an sohlen-
losen Hakenpfliigen (nach Rees), b. Mutmahhche
Funktionsrekonstruktion (nach Reynolds),
c. Schwendhaken (nach Vilkuna) und Vorschlage
fur die Anbringung von steinernen Scharen an
Schwendhaken.