The Hindsgavl Dagger
In the Neolithic period the flint workers achieved very high technical standards. The magnificent dagger from Hindsgavl with its blade less than 1 cm thick is the finest example of the flint workers’ outstanding skills at the end of the Stone Age. It was found around 1876 on the island Fænø in the Little Belt. The dagger type is called a ‘fishtail dagger’ because of the fishtail-formed hilt. Pressure-flaked daggers mark the beginning of the end of the Stone Age, and are the reason why the period from 2400-1800 BC is called the Dagger Period.
Reference:
https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-neolithic-period/the-hindsgavl-dagger/
#history #ancienthistory #flint #knives #daggers #flintknife
I spent a lot of my childhood trying to learn to flake flint into arrowheads, because I lived in an area full of old ones and old flint knapping sites, and I never got even close to competent. Stuff like this must have required decades of experience.
ReplyDeleteJohn Bump did you get any bad cuts? I think that was all I got for my sad attempts
ReplyDeleteI didn't, that I remember, Hudson Ansley, but I was trying to do pressure flaking rather than impact fractures, and I think that was a little less prone to cuts. I got started on this when I found an old flint knapping site where Utes would sit, making arrowheads, waiting for the deer to come down the valley to them. No tools left but piles of careful shards and flakes, and it got me fascinated.
ReplyDeleteSome University of Illinois archeology department personnel has Flint arrow Head making skills...
ReplyDelete