The Neolithic Woodworker. Understanding Material Culture and Environment in the Pre-Historic Age

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会议名称:2023世界木材日研讨会暨第五届国际林联(IUFRO)林产品文化研究组讨论会
会议时间:2023年3月22日

报告嘉宾:Mark Griffiths 
嘉宾简介:英国的一位木工和独立研究员

摘要:
Our brief was a simple one, build a reproduction of a Neolithic roundhouse on a Natural England site, using timber and materials sourced in the landscape. Without historical evidence to draw on, no Prehistoric settlement has been discovered in this location, we approached the build as if our team of 
volunteers were Neolithic settlers constructing a dwelling here for the first time. The Roundhouse design was based on archaeological evidence from other sites in northern Europe. A cone of Silver Birch poles would be jointed to a 1.5-meter high circular wall. The 3-meter diameter wall was constructed using 15cm diameter Birch logs connected by Willow wattle panels. The walls were to be daubed in a mixture of clay, manure and straw; the roof would be thatched in reeds.
The beautiful moorland landscape seemed perfect at first sight with its abundance of Willow, Birch and a lake for clay and reed. Our unforeseen problems started with felling the quantities of timber required, mainly using flint axes, and transporting this back site. Then the clay we intended to use collected from the banks of the lake contained a multitude of small sharp stones that cut your hands as you worked it. Even if suitable the effort involved in moving large amounts of wet clay from lakeside to site was back braking. The reeds, which had at first seemed to grow in abundance, were brittle to the point of being unworkable. It also soon became clear that the quantity required for our roof would simply take too long to harvest.In conclusion, the theory that communities in Pre-history would simply arrive in a location and construct settlements without detailed understanding of the available materials, surveying the suitably of each component was soon evidently a simplistic one, and underestimated their time learned knowledge.

 

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