In Search of Britain’s First Knife

In Search of Britain’s First Knife

Knives are a diverse species of objet d’art straddling such extremes from the minute bladed craft knife to the rugged Bowie knife, from the hodgepodge that is the Swiss Army Knife to the grim shape of a Kukri, they come in all shapes and sizes from switchblade to carving knife, can be curved, straight bladed, pointed or snub nosed, they can be made of metal, plastic, ceramics, even bamboo and used for cutting, stabbing, throwing, chopping, as a ornament, a status symbol or even in a religious ceremony. So setting out too find the first British knife may not be as straightforward a task as it at first seems, especially when we throw in a huge philosophical discussion on what actually constitutes a knife in the first place. Taking this on board the search for Britain’s first knife is going to be more a journey by the scenic route of prehistoric knif-ish development rather than a concise answer. 

Oldowan Flake Tools
Our story starts when a species of monkeys got bored just hanging around in trees and had delusions of grandeur deciding to kick start the whole technological process that one day would lead to splitting the atom and Justin Beiber CD’s. It was about 2.6 million years ago in Oldawan Gorge in Tanzania when the diminutive Homo Hablis hominid species, the aptly named ‘handy man’, one of man’s earliest ancestors made humanity’s first cutting blade by striking a flake off a flint pebble and creating the first knife-like object.

These first flake blades are about as crude as it comes but they were used for cutting the raison d'etre of a knife, so could the search be over already? The first flint blades found in Britain date back over 800,000 years. They were created by an unknown people and so sketchy is our knowledge of these very first Britons even what Hominid species they were is unknown. It’s ironic in many ways living in a country which prides itself on its contribution to science and technology that it has an extensive ban in place on knives, the very item it was man’s desire for that created this whole technology thingy that the modern world is a malaise of in the first place. 

Acheulean Hand Axes

Around 1.7 million years ago a new knife-like tool appeared on the bloc, the magnificent Acheulean Hand Axe, arguably the most inaccurately described thing in history, at least until Ed Miliband described himself as a Socialist that is. Called a ‘hand axe’ the tool was a cutting implement and although varying enormously in shape and size all designs have the quality of having long continuous cutting edges. The Acheulean Hand Axe would continue to be manufactured on and off for a million and a half years giving is the longest use in human existence of any tool and any tool manufactured for that long must have many merits. 

While Acheulean hand axes were most likely butchery knives, the mysteries, quirks and out of the box theories you would expect that surround a tool this distant in time and with this longevity are abound. Up until the 18^th century hand axes were called thunderbolts and when found in the ground believed to be the tip of a lightning strike. One of the more quirky modern archaeological theories of their use is they were hunting Frisbees thrown at the legs of running animals to bring them down. Hand axe’s size also differ greatly making interesting theorising as in many countries giant handaxes were made, in Britain the largest found is 307mm long. The complete ludicrousness of the size of some hand axes making them impossible to wield show there must have been more than a purely functional use for them, was it art, religion? One archaeologist suggests that is was phallic, the size of the hand axe representing the size of the manhood of the owner, unsurprising the said archaeologist who came up with this interpretation is female and she married a man who drove a 4 by 4. One of the more tangible mysteries of these items though is the phenomena of burying large quantities of unused hand axes together, for religious reasons perhaps? In Britain the Acheulean industry occurred in several locations, most famously Boxgrove around 500,000 years ago and the culprit the unfortunately named Homo Heidelbergensis.

Lithic Core Blades
Another strong candidate would be Lithic Core Blades, these are even called blade knives. These blades are high tech and are created by the systemic removal of long straight blades from prepared flint cores. It is a highly skilled technique dating back possibly as far as 200,000 years ago and was still use by gun flint knappers in England in the twentieth century. Blade cores were used the world over and the blades from these cores were the staple tool of many prehistoric societies being razor sharp and manufacturable in seconds. They would have been used for all tasks imagineable from cutting meat and vegetables to making cloth or even agriculture, the abundant blades would simply be used for a few minutes until blunt, thrown away and another one grabbed. They were the world’s first completely disposable tool. 

The technique for making these blades is best described as bloody difficult to do but is extremely ergonomic aswell as virtually the whole flint nodule can be turned into blades with little wastage. Blade core technology proves that Britian did once actually have an efficient industry, just you have to go back two hundred thousand years to find it.

An excellent film of a Brandon knapper making these blades can be seen here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgLCXkOv-bc

Microliths

Microliths is a name given to a whole miniature tool kit and includes knife style blades. Being called micro it doesn’t take a degree in linguistics to work out these blades are extremely small however if you regard a doctors scalpel as a knife it would be hard to say these minute scalpel like implements aren’t knives too. 

Microliths first appeared around 30,000 years ago in China, when they arrived in Britain is more sketchy, they may have made it before the Dimlington Stadial but they definitely arrived after it during the Mesolithic era where they became the whole basis of technology in Britain for millennia. There are two kinds of microliths, the older Laminar ones which are simple straight blades and later geometric shaped ones. 

Discoidal knives

After thousands of years of using microliths people in Britain finally went bugger it they’re too fiddly and concluded they needed something they could get their fingers around, a more sensible design of knife, naturally they came up with a circular one.

Discoidal knives were manufactured in Britain during the Neolithic Era, the rather odd shape does have some logic to it honest! It gives it the longest possible cutting edge possible and as it blunted could just be rotated. Also resharpening would be easier than with a straight blade. 

Plano Convex Knives

Plano convex knives or ‘slug knives’ are an especially British knife appearing in the late Neolithic. Plano Convex means flat on one side and rounded on the other. They were manufacture from Blade Core Blades, the inner flat side of the blade being left unknapped and the outer ridged edge being flaked over, this basically made the blade eco friendly as the blades were resharpenable and didn’t need to be disposed of after one use. Slug knives then were officially the beginning of the green movement in Britain and shortly after green and black top bins became common outside all roundhouses. 


Beaker Daggers
With the coming of the Bronze Age stone technology died...... No actually it didn’t, it boomed, you see metal at first was only available to a few people, the super rich or people good at plundering things from the super rich. Knappers got brand new tools kit including metal tools which improved their knapping quality skyward and a whole lot of custom orders flooded in from the middle classes who couldn’t afford shiny metal things so wanted decent flint imitations.

Beaker Daggers were the finest flint knives ever produced in Britain and clearly and indisputably knives. The only problem is they first appeared in the Bronze Age and seem to be imitations of copper or bronze knives. This would rather surreally mean stone technology post dated metal technology. 

Beaker daggers are large usually 7-8 inches on average and were hafted with wooden handled similar to the ones bronze and copper knives had. They vary in design but seem to be very wide at the tip and designed for cutting not stabbing, it’s unlikely their use was as a weapon if they even had a use at all beyond that of status symbol.

Non-Conclusion
I set out to discover what Britain’s first knife and have travelled through 2.6 million years in order to do so. Somewhere along the line Britain’s first knife has revealed itself, the question is where? I would guess different readers will have their own views, so I offer no conclusion to this article but instead a question, which is Britain's first knife?

British Neolithic Arrowheads Video

This video is made as a follow up to last month's post explaining the seven main types of arrowheads found in Britain during the Neolithic Era.

These arrowheads were made for our...........  Arrowhead Set Range.

Set contains one of each king and come in a display box. Other sets are also available featuring different kinds of arrowheads. 

British Neolithic Arrowhead Poster

This free poster explains the variety of arrowheads found in Britain during neolithic times. A high resolution version and more free posters can be downloaded from the site below.

Free Posters Click Here

Leaf Shaped Arrowheads

Prehistorics reproductions of the wide variety of leaf blades style found in the UK.

Leaf Arrowheads are a diverse category of arrowheads which dominated the early Neolithic Era, are found in smaller numbers dating from the mid Neolithic and become quite scarce in late Neolithic. The decline most likely demonstrates their gradual replacement as more effective designs of arrowhead were created. 

Leaf Arrowheads can be divided into two broad types, oval and kite shapes, these can be both long and thin or short and wide. Some found can be very crude only basically shaped while others incredibly thin and delicate showing an immense amount of skill which were most likely status symbols as they were far to delicate to shoot. 

Left: Kite shaped arrowhead found in Wandsworth. Below: classic leaf design.

Lacking barbs leaf arrowheads are not as effective as later Neolithic designs but not being notched are easier to make. One suggestion is as the Neolithic farming evolution was taking place and knapping was changing from being a survival skill learnt to a basic level by everyone, to an artisan trade done by a specialists in a pastoral community, that the leaf arrowhead was a transitory arrowhead. As highly skilled knappers emerged the crude Mesolithic designs began to go out of fashion and the more aesthetic leaf arrowhead was introduced, being manufacturable in both cruder forms by basic knappers and highly skilled forms it fitted all for a period until knapping became entirely specialised.

Petit Tranchet Transverse Arrowheads

Petit Tranchet arrowheads are similar in design to Chisel Arrowheads however they are transverse. Transverse means they were knapped sideways. Usually arrowheads are knapped along the length of the flake, but with transverse arrowheads they go from one side to the other across the width of the flake. Also rather than being made from either a debitage flake or a custom removed flake from a prepared nodule they made from blade struck off a blade core. 

There is nothing as sharp as the edge of a newly stuck flint flake,  no amount of retouching can come even close to this level of sharpness, the Petit Tranchet design makes use of this. Designs that narrow towards a point retouching must always be done to shape them however the Petit Tranchet's unusual design allows the unmodified edge to be retained as tip. 

The advantage of a blade core industry is that blades can be turned into almost all flint tools, knives, drills, butchery tools, woodworking tools, leather working tools, sickles and hunting weapons, almost all knapping needs bar axes and adzes can be created from cores. This creates standardisation, a person need only carry a few blades with them and they can modify them on the spot to any tools. It also creates specialisation of industry where people can become highly skilled at producing at one kind of knapping. Petit Tranchets then coming from cores provide a blade based industry a quality easy to manufacture arrowhead, whereas any other design would require knappers with differing skills such as pressure flaking and bifacial knapping.

Making a Petit Tranchet from a blade is quite easy, but generating a blade to make one from highly skilled, in blade core industries this means division of the labour is possible, a specialist expert knapper will provide the blades then anyone can take them and make their own tools from them, with the case of hunters, that being arrowheads. This introduces many of the principles of mass production to flint tool making.

Neolithic & Mesolithic Petit Tranchet Arrowheads 

found in various places inNorthern Europe

    

Chisel Shaped Arrowheads

Chisel Arrowheads by Prehistorics

Chisel Arrowheads are a kind of flint arrowhead found only in late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Northern Europe. They are completely unique and nothing like them is found any where else in the world.

The trapezoid shape of the arrowheads are counter intuitive. Most arrowheads narrow towards the point and have sharp edges, chisel arrowheads widen towards the point. Experimental archaeology has shown however this design to be quite effective when used.

Prehistoric Knappers often took advantage of the natural sharpness of the flint edge when making these arrowheads using the unretouched edge as a tip and ones that show retouching on the tip may not have been made this way, just resharpened. 

Chisel Arrowheads found around Britain

British Oblique Flint Arrowheads

Oblique Arrowheads along with many other kinds are available from our website www.prehistorics.co.uk

Oblique arrowheads were first manufactured in the Mesolithic Era though they were often quite crude and consisted of little more than a basic triangle. The use of this type arrowhead continued through the Neolithic Era and to the early Bronze Age with designs getting more varied and sophisticated. Arrowheads of this kind are usually divided into two broad categories called Irish and British then subtypes after that. Irish Oblique Arrowheads tended to be longer and have no formed barb while the shorter British ones often had well defined barbs. Both British and Irish kinds are found in the UK.

   Left: Irish style..... Right: British style

Oblique arrowheads with a range of different 

stem sizes. Left no stem to right long tailed.

The two arrowheads on the left have no formed 

barb the two on the right have prominent barbs.

While most oblique arrowheads were made for hunting and shooting in England two high quality varieties have been found, in Yorkshire a style known as ripple flaked has been discovered, ripple flaking involves taking a series of regular long thin flakes across the arrowhead to create a decorative pattern. It is extraordinarily difficult to do and even modern knappers with modern tools cannot match the some of the prehistoric Yorkshire examples. Another variety is known as the Long Tailed Oblique, these are regular oblique arrowheads only a with an extremely long stem. This again requires great skill, not only taking a sufficiently large and flat flint flake off a nodule but sculpting it without breaking the stem. Perhaps the finest example of any Oblique arrowhead in the world was found at Marden Henge in Devizes, how the knapper got that stem so fine is a mystery. Long Tails are completely impractical for shooting and Ripple Flaking so special both were made for other uses than shooting, whether as an ornamental piece of art of great value to its owner, for spiritual significance or perhaps as grave goods. 

Left: Fine example of ripple flaked piece of flint found on the Yorkshire Dales, flakes 3cm in length and 

2-3mm wide have uniformly been taken across the surface of the piece of flint. No modern knapper could produce work this fine. 

Top Right: Long Tailed Oblique Arrowhead found at Marden Henge in Devizes, the finest example of these arrowhead types ever found. 

Bottom Right: Ripple flaked Oblique arrowhead found near Stonehenge with a very short stem.

An Oblique Arrowhead is hafted on to an arrow by cutting a groove along the wood. The stem of the arrowhead is them glued in that groove and finally it is bound with sinew for additional strength. 

Sources
Photos of original arrowheads from,
Past 66
Eternal Idol website
Bordley Township Project