Insights from a tribological analysis of the tribulum

Autor: Patricia Anderson, Roberto Vargiolu, J.M. Georges, Hassan Zahouani
Přispěvatelé: Centre d'Études Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age (CEPAM), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes (LTDS), École Centrale de Lyon (ECL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE)-Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Saint Etienne-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2006
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Archaeological Science
Journal of Archaeological Science, Elsevier, 2006, 33 (11), pp.1559-1568
ISSN: 0305-4403
1095-9238
Popis: International audience; Since the 1980s, ‘‘strange'' microwear traces were found to occur on flint blades from sites in the Near East from the late Neolithic andoccurring in great abundance by the Early Bronze Age. Although these were considered by archaeologists to be sickles because they had visiblegloss on their edges, their use-traces could not be reproduced in harvesting experiments carried out in the field. Subsequently, several lines ofevidence were used to study the blades, including not only direct observation of microscopic wear traces, but also Near Eastern cuneiform textsfrom the third and second millennium BC describing agricultural instruments and analogy with ethnographic and experimental referencematerial. We found that these tools and their traces best matched traces on flint used to arm the underside of a tribulum (threshing sledge)for threshing grain and cutting straw. We built a replica of the tribulum described in cuneiform texts from the Bronze Age, using copies ofthe Bronze Age blades, and used this instrument in experiments.The publication of S. A. Semenov's work concerning traceology of ancient implements [S.A. Semenov, Prehistoric Technology (M.W.Thompson, Trans.), Cory, Adams and Mackay, London, 1964] awakened considerable interest in the possibilities of directly inferring tool functionfrom the microscopic traces left by use on ancient implements. However, the goal and purpose of microwear studies is to reconstruct, ascompletely as possible, the economic activities of prehistoric groups, requiring a methodology that embraces all aspects relevant to the interpretationof microwear traces [L. Keeley, The methodology of microwear analysis : a comment on Nance. American Antiquity 39 (1974) 126-128].In this study, we apply the science of tribology, which studies the friction and the wear of solid bodies in contact, to the threshing sledge andits blades.Tribological analysis of the tribulum has thus far provided new explanations for the formation of traces of wear on flint inserts in threshingsledges, while also revealing features on a far smaller scale, involving the role of a film deposit. We determine the mechanisms by which thetribulum threshes grain, and, particularly, fine-cuts straw from the sheaves of cereal laid on the threshing floor. The superior functioning ofthe tribulum compared to other methods of threshing and cutting straw is due to its great control of the rheologyethe deformation andfloweof the straw layer on the threshing floor. The study lead to insights as to the mastery, of what may be considered today to be complextribological principles, in the Bronze Age and probably beginning in the Late Neolithic [P.C. Anderson, Observations on the threshing sledgeand its products in ancient and present-day Mesopotamia, in: P.C. Anderson, L.S. Cummings, T.K. Schippers, B. Simonel, (Eds.), Le traitementdes récoltes: un regard sur la diversitédu Néolithique au présent, ADPCA, Antibes, 2003, pp. 417-438].
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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