Sickle (or side scraper)
- Title:
- Sickle (or side scraper)
- Collection:
- Selections from the Cornell Anthropology Collections
- Date:
- ca. 3950-1700 BCE
- Site:
- Denmark
- Location:
- Denmark
- Country:
- Denmark
- ID Number:
- Anthr1882_007_0128_01
- Old Catalog Number:
- 882.7.128
- File Name:
- Anthr1882_007_0128_01.jpg
- Culture:
- Danish (culture or style)
Neolithic - Style/Period:
- Neolithic
- Work Type:
- scrapers (finishing tools)
sickles
harvesting knives - Materials/Techniques:
- stone
flint (rock) - Subject:
- denmark
antiquities (object genre)
Neolithic
scandinavia
tools
prehistoric
sickles
prehistoric - Measurement:
- 8.7 x 2.9 x 0.7 (centimeters)
- Description:
- Flint sickle, and/or side scraper. Dark red-brown flint of very high quality. The blade has been truncated and blunted at the distal end, and one side pressure-flaked. The latter may have been intended as either a scraper edge or blunting ("backing"), but the latter interpretation seems more likely given the micro-flaking along the opposite edge and polish to the surfaces along that edge. As a side scraper this could date to any time from the Upper Paleolithic into the Neolithic, but its more likely use as a sickle would date it firmly in the Neolithic.
- Bibliography:
- Jørgen Jensen, The Prehistory of Denmark (Methuen, 1982)
Deborah Olausson & Helle Vandkilde, Form, Function & Context: Material Culture Studies in Scandinavian Archaeology (Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2000)
Christopher Tilley, An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia (Cambridge, 1996)
Anders Fischer & Kristian Kristiansen (eds), The Neolithisation of Denmark: 150 Years of Debrate (JR Collis, 2002)
Helle Vandkilde, From Stone to Bronze: The Metalwork of the Late Neolithic and Earliest Bronze Age in Denmark (Jutland Archaeological Society, 1996)
"The Danish Stone Ages: An Outline". John Whittaker (1974)
Becker, C.J. 1945 "New Finds of Hafted Neolithic Celts." Acta Archaeologica, 16. 1949 "Hafted Neolithic Celts II." Acta Archaeologica, 20. 1956 "The Date of the Neolithic Settlement at Trelleborg." Acta Archaeologica, 27. 1971 "Late Paleolithic Finds from Denmark." Antiquity, 33.
Oldeberg, A. 1932 "Some Contributions to the Earliest History of the Sickle." Acta Archaeologica, 3.
Rud, Morsen, ed. 1966 Jeg Ser Pa Oldsager.
Sandklef, W. 1935 "Are Scandinavian Flint Saws to be considered as Leaf-Knives?” Acta Archaeologica, 5. - Archival Collection:
- Danish Neolithic stone tools
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Collection 'Selections from the Cornell Anthropology Collections' are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are Cornell University Library and the Department of Anthropology. Physical artifacts from the Cornell Anthropology Collections were photographed by Cornell University Library in 2012-13 for inclusion in this image collection. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.
Cornell would like to learn more about items in this collection and to hear from individuals or institutions that have any additional information. This collection is funded by an Arts and Sciences Grant to Frederic W. Gleach, Curator of the Anthropology Collections. Please contact him for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.