Kisné Cseh Julianna – Somorjai József szerk.: Komárom – Esztergom Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 5. (Tata, 1997)

Homola István: Technical Observations on Prehistoric Stone Artifacts

Technical Observations on Prehistoric Stone Artifacts István Homola I made a list of those cutting handtools and tools for other working processes which were used by the craftsmen of the different crafts in the recent past or which are still being used even today. For this reason I examined the shape of the tools found during excavations - excavations mainly did in places where once settlements stood - and I also made use of the possibilities offered by ethnography. Because for thousands of years wood - together with many others - was one of the basic raw materials in man's environment, (they worked wood with tools which were completely or partly made of stone) I wanted to compare the shapes, the cutting edge and the regularities connected to these wood processing tools - still in use today - to prehistoric stone tools. If we accept the general truth that human culture is continuous, that the technical development is based on the experiences gathered by the succeeding generations, than we must accept that it also refers to the continuity of our manufacturing activities, and of course to cutting as a basic activity, too. The stone tools found excavations or found as remnants are especially suitable for comparison. This is illustrated by drawing No 2 where one can see the segments of a prehistoric scrub plane and of a plane used today. One of the cardinal points of my observation is the relation between the raw material used for tools by prehistoric man - the flint - and the machinability of the basic materials found in his environment. The resistance to pressure, the hardness of the raw material, the magnitude of the compressive force, the blade angel of the tool (graphs 1 and 2) are such relations that suppose a serious foreseeing mental activity (planning). The measured cutting angle of 250 stone tools and the hardness values of the supposed workable materials are shown in the graph. The obsidian and the flint are separately presented. The material of a hunting camp gathered at Bodrogkeresztes-Henye during the excavations in 1963 by László Vértes and by Viola Dobosi in 1982 is also presented, (not the complete material) The examination of the regularity between the hardness of the workable raw material and the blade of the chipped flint tools sometimes is negatively influenced by the fact that the data found in the special literature are sometimes controversial. The hardness of the different materials, such as of the different pine woods, is very superficially determined or is not determined at all. But one cannot find data on the hardness of the bones and of the antlers. One cannot find in the special literature full data referring to the scratch hardness and to the crushing index of the different lime stones. If such data are disposal 40