Harvesting experiments

Producing replicas of late Epipalaeolithic/early Neolithic flint sickles

As a first step in planning and preparing the harvesting experiments, we are producing replicas of late Epipalaeolithic/early Neolithic flint sickles, oriented on finds from el-Wad (Israel) and Jericho (Palestine).

We started with an exciting knapping workshop at John Lord's place in Gooderstone, Norfolk (https://www.flintknapping.co.uk/index.html), who showed us how to prepare a flint core in order to produce long and straight sickle blanks. Well, let’s be honest and confess that he was actually the one who was able to produce them! The results are astonishing and together with Will Mills (Oxford) we are retouching the blanks and prepare wooden handles for the sickle replicas.

Upper left: Will Mills with some of his excellent knapping results; upper right: a collection of shaping flakes (top), blades (middle) and the core (bottom left) produced by John Lord; below: the refuse of a very productive one-day knapping workshop.