
English: 
Hello, I’m James Dilley. I’m an experimental
archaeologist and I run a company called ‘Ancient
Craft’. I specialise in looking at prehistoric
technology, so stone, flint hand axes like
this. By using replicas of these hand axes
on actual carcasses we can start to build
up a profile of what makes these axes ideal.
Once we’ve used them a couple of times we
can actually see where these axes have been
used, back and forth through cartilage, flesh
or even bone, and we can compare that to originals
to try and work out how, or at what stage
they were used in the butchery process.
Certainly, looking back at the Palaeolithic,
why they went to all the effort of making,
what look like quite beautiful objects like
this rather than making just simple flakes
like this which is a much, much shaper edge

English: 
Hello I'm James Dilley I'm an experimental
archaeologist and I run a company called
Ancient Craft. I specialise in looking at
prehistoric technology, so stone, flint
hand axes like this. By using replicas of
these hand axes on actual carcasses we
can start to build up a profile of what
makes these axes ideal. Once we've used
them a couple of times we can actually
see where these axes have been used, back
and forth through cartilage, flesh
or even bone, and we can compare that to
originals to try and work out how, or at
what stage they were used in the
butchery process. Certainly, looking
back at the Palaeolithic, why they went to
all the effort of making, what look like quite
beautiful objects like this, rather than

English: 
and takes just one hit, comes down to experimental
archaeology.
The edge of this is serrated like a bread
knife and, although it’s not razor-sharp,
when used in a sawing action it’s far more
efficient and it’s much easier to hold on
to when you’re working quite a large carcass
whereas something like this is far smaller
and quite slippery and very difficult to hold
on to so this is certainly the far more efficient
tool on larger carcasses.
Moving into the Neolithic, many of these Neolithic
axes are found broken. Looking at the originals
that have been broken in a certain way we
can make many replicas and test them under
different scenarios, hitting a tree in a certain
way, with a certain amount of power. The flaking
process of these axes can take less than an
hour but to produce this beautiful surface
can take many tens of hours. If you imagine
an axe like this striking into a tree from
its wooden handle, if it’s got a rippled,

English: 
making just simple flakes like this
which is a much, much sharper edge and
just takes one hit, comes down to
experimental archaeology. The edge of
this is serrated like a bread knife and,
although it's not razor sharp, when used
in a sawing action it's far more
efficient and it's much easier to hold
on to when you're working quite a
large carcass. Whereas something like
this is far smaller and quite slippery
very difficult to hold on to so this is
certainly the far more efficient tool
on larger carcasses. Moving into the
Neolithic, many of these Neolithic axes
are found broken. Looking at the
originals that have been broken in a
certain way we can make many replicas
and test them under different scenarios,
hitting a tree in a certain way, with a
certain amount of power. The flaking
process of these axes can take less than
an hour, but to produce this beautiful
surface can take many tens of hours.
If you imagine an axe like this striking
into a tree from its wooden handle, if
it's got a rippled flaked surface a bit
like the hand axe, the shock will end up

English: 
localising itself in certain points, and
that stress and shock will start to
build up and cause it to fail and break.
Whereas with a smooth surface, the shock
has to travel evenly through and into
the handle, so it just improves the life
span of an axe like this. Trying to live
with and work
with these objects and materials, you
start to build up a similar train of
thought and knowledge that they would
have had in the past. I have to have a
really detailed understanding of the
right angle to strike at, the right
amount of power involved on the edge
there, the shock will travel underneath
and allow a flake to come off the bottom.
And I can determine how long those
flakes are, how wide they are, whether
they dig quite deep into the material to
help thin it down or keep it quite thick.
To think carefully about things like
angles and those several moves ahead,
demonstrates they really were quite

English: 
flaked surface a bit like the hand axe, the
shock will end up localising itself in certain
points, and that stress and shock will start
to build up and will cause it to fail and
break. Whereas with a small surface, the shock
has to travel evenly through and into the
handle, so it just improves the life-span
of an axe like this.
Try to live with and work with these objects
and materials, you start to build up a similar
train of thought and knowledge that they would
have had in the past. I have to have a really
detailed understanding of the right angle
to strike at, the right amount of power involved
on the edge there, the shock will travel underneath
and allow a flake to come off the bottom.
And I can determine how long those flakes
are, how wide they are, whether they dig quite
deep into the material to help thin it down
or keep it quite thick. To think carefully
about things like angles and those several
moves ahead, demonstrates they really were

English: 
quite sophisticated, complex individuals.
Experimental archaeology cannot be replaced
in any way, there’s no scientific process
that can tell you how these things were used
or why they were used in a certain way.

English: 
sophisticated, complex individuals. Experimental archaeology cannot be
replaced in any way, there's no
scientific process that can tell you how
these things were used or why they were
used in a certain way.
