Tree Felling with Stone Axes: Pre-Bending Matters but Feller Sex Does Not

Francis E. Putz; Trey Fletcher; Lukas Magee

doi:10.3390/f14020202

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Tree Felling with Stone Axes: Pre-Bending Matters but Feller Sex Does Not

Journal article

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Tree Felling with Stone Axes: Pre-Bending Matters but Feller Sex Does Not

Francis E. Putz, Trey Fletcher and Lukas Magee

Forests, Vol.14(2), pp.1-7

2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020202

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Abstract

experimental archaeology

terra preta

swidden agriculture

anthropogenic dark earths

Based on recent insights about intensive soil husbandry by some Neolithic farmers combined with the required techniques for efficient use of stone tools, this research questions the emphasis in the experimental archaeology literature on felling of large trees by stone axe wielding males working alone. To reflect conditions after the short fallows now thought to have been favored by farmers using stone tools, young (8-12 years) and small (3.5-5.6 cm diameter) Quercus hemisphaerica (laurel oak) trees were felled in this study by both male and female participants. Felling with a stone axe required an average of 75 more strokes than for felling a similar sized tree with a steel axe. One novel finding in this study is that when the Quercus hemisphaerica (laurel oak) saplings were bent over/tensioned by a coworker, the predicted numbers of felling strokes declined by 123 (73%) for stone axes and by 15 (72%) for steel axes. We also observed no effect of sex on felling efficiency with stone axes. These results suggest that stone tool wielding farmers of both sexes worked together to clear trees from their fallowed fields.

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Title: Tree Felling with Stone Axes: Pre-Bending Matters but Feller Sex Does Not
Authors: Francis E. Putz (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Tropical Forests and People Research Centre
Trey Fletcher (Author) - Atlanta Botanical Garden (United States)
Lukas Magee (Author) - University of Florida
Publication details: Forests, Vol.14(2), pp.1-7
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2023
DOI: 10.3390/f14020202
ISSN: 1999-4907
Copyright note: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
Organisation Unit: Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99716034302621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Forestry