Did stone age people baton?

Y

Yorkshire Boy

Joined
Sep 27, 2008
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Yet again Dr Bill (got me thinking)...

So how on earth did our ancestors cope with non metals?

Any ideas...

How could they get a fire going while all wood around them was wet?
 
Yorkshire Boy said:
Yet again Dr Bill (got me thinking)...

So how on earth did our ancestors cope with non metals?

Any ideas...

How could they get a fire going while all wood around them was wet?
Click to expand...

Use stone (generally flint) blades to cut away the outer (damp) portion of the wood.

Use friction method to start fire or, alternatively, bang two proper rocks — such as pyrite — together to create a spark that ignites the tinder.

In other words, they did it pretty much the same as we do it today, but they had to rely on stone implements.
 
There is always dry wood somewhere, many cultures also had ways of keeping an ember going so that they almost always had the seed of a fire, and once you have a fire you can dry wet wood, you can also stash it in a dry place, cave, hut, etc...

Check out the cultures that were stone age for longer than most. The Hawaiians were stone age till western contact and still managed to exist with the savage pacific ocean and live/thrive for ages before metal came into their lives. The ancient Hawaiians only had bone, stone and shell and made it work.

For specific answers you will probably have to do some reading, anthropology maybe? Interesting question.
 
splitting wedge-shaped rocks and a stick, probably... It's not like it's an overly complicated task to accomplish.
 
Actually, PayetteRucker said it well: it's not a terribly complicated process.

Our early ancestors were pretty handy with the things they had around them, and practiced with those things their whole lives.
 
I'm sure they rarely split wood. Just stack up long branches in cave, shelter, under maple tree, pine trees, etc. My fiancee is a firebug, got a fire going a day before the rain, and in a rainstorm we had a pyramid of blazing wood 4 feet high. Couldn't get near it. Keep wet wood near the fire (drys it out, even in a downpour), and keep the fire going. Only the top pieces of the wood pile get wet, lift off the top piece, take a dry piece and replace the wet top piece. Also, just drag long 20 foot branches to the fire and feed them in, they dry (water boils out) as you feed it in. Long term, make a debris hut (or 10), and fill it (them) with wood, it'll stay dry in there (so will you, warm too).
 
manowar669 said:
I'm sure they rarely split wood. Just stack up long branches in cave, shelter, under maple tree, pine trees, etc. My fiancee is a firebug, got a fire going a day before the rain, and in a rainstorm we had a pyramid of blazing wood 4 feet high. Couldn't get near it. Keep wet wood near the fire (drys it out, even in a downpour), and keep the fire going. Only the top pieces of the wood pile get wet, lift off the top piece, take a dry piece and replace the wet top piece. Also, just drag long 20 foot branches to the fire and feed them in, they dry (water boils out) as you feed it in. Long term, make a debris hut (or 10), and fill it (them) with wood, it'll stay dry in there (so will you, warm too).
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Err, when something like fire is an everyday fact of life, I'm pretty sure they had every excuse in the book to split wood. I bet you could take your average caveman from 10,000 years ago and pit them against any 'survival expert' around today in a contest to see who can build a fire the fastest... How do you think our predecessors started fires when their wood sources were wet? I'm willing to bet it's the same way we do-by battoning to get to the dry stuff in the center.
 
PayetteRucker said:
Err, when something like fire is an everyday fact of life, I'm pretty sure they had every excuse in the book to split wood. I bet you could take your average caveman from 10,000 years ago and pit them against any 'survival expert' around today in a contest to see who can build a fire the fastest... How do you think our predecessors started fires when their wood sources were wet? I'm willing to bet it's the same way we do-by battoning to get to the dry stuff in the center.
Click to expand...

I'm sure they did. But probably when they were caught ill-prepared, in a bad rainy season etc. If they weren't moving locations, they would stock up, and dry it.
 
dawsonbob said:
I seem to remember that being pointed out before.

What I want to see is a picture of Masie batonning: now that would be something.
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Maisy doesn't need to batton, her jaws are like a hydraulic wood splitter !

Here is a pic of her fetching a little stick !:D

P4120023.jpg
 
pitdog said:
Maisy doesn't need to batton, her jaws are like a hydraulic wood splitter !

Here is a pic of her fetching a little stick !:D

P4120023.jpg
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I remember that one, too, Pit. How is she with a firesteel?

Since I can't have dogs now, I live vicariously through your shots of Maisy and Snicker.
 
manowar669 said:
I'm sure they rarely split wood. Just stack up long branches in cave, shelter, under maple tree, pine trees, etc. My fiancee is a firebug, got a fire going a day before the rain, and in a rainstorm we had a pyramid of blazing wood 4 feet high. Couldn't get near it. Keep wet wood near the fire (drys it out, even in a downpour), and keep the fire going. Only the top pieces of the wood pile get wet, lift off the top piece, take a dry piece and replace the wet top piece. Also, just drag long 20 foot branches to the fire and feed them in, they dry (water boils out) as you feed it in. Long term, make a debris hut (or 10), and fill it (them) with wood, it'll stay dry in there (so will you, warm too).
Click to expand...


Yep.

"Natural shelters such as Hinds Cave may also have been used to stockpile firewood in anticipation of periods of wet weather. This suspected habit would have made it possible to carry out cooking during extended wet periods, especially the use of earth ovens to bake the hearts of semi-succulants such as lechuguilla and sotol. Earth oven cooking requires considerable firewood and probably was most important during the late winter and early spring when few other foods were available and stored foods were gone. Cold, wet stretches coinciding with an annual dietary low point would have made efficient earth oven cooking next to impossible except in naturally sheltered locations."------http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/hinds/life.html

A local mock up of a Creek Indian village has several firewood caches. I doubt even highly nomadic tribes roamed much during seasons of very inclement weather. I know it's not as in vogue as batoning, but whittling or scraping will eventually yield the same same dry center of a dead branch or small dead tree. You can find bird nests and other small, off the ground kindling that is usually out of direct rain. I've seen demonstrations of splitting wood using primitive means, but it has always been for crafts, never fire building. Also, you can split arm thick logs easily without batoning.
 
Honestly I can;t believe we are even discussing this....THe folks we're talking about here had an understanding of there respective environment that outshines ours like the sun compared to a 60 watt bulb... a survival situation for them was trying not to get eaten by a lion or killed by someone else because there smudge bundle still had a coal in it...Being out in the wood for them was everyday life.. THey could find dry tinder in places we wouldn;t think of, THey stripped wet bark off with there teeth and nails and spun cedar bark in to river spanning salmon nets in the time it takes me to thigh roll a shoelace out of yucca fibers..
Did they baton?. I don;t know
Did they need? to probably not
do I need to? sometimes
why?
because my skill and knowledge base are far inferior and my lack of skill requires more idiot friendly tools
 
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RescueRiley said:
Honestly I can;t believe we are even discussing this....THe folks we're talking about here had an understanding of there respective environment that outshines ours like the sun compared to a 60 watt bulb... a survival situation for them was trying not to get eaten by a lion or killed by someone else because there smudge bundle still had a coal in it...Being out in the wood for them was everyday life.. THey could find dry tinder in places we wouldn;t think of, THey stripped wet bark off with there teeth and nails and spun cedar bark in to river spanning salmon nets in the time it takes me to thigh roll a shoelace out of yucca fibers..
Did they baton?. I don;t know
Did they need? to probably not
do I need to? sometimes
why?
because my skill and knowledge base are far inferior and my lack of skill requires more idiot friendly tools
Click to expand...

Thank you voice of reason. Yes they Batoned, and chopped, and scraped and scratched and licked and whipped...they did it all, cause thats what they did. They lived, not survived. We think of going into the woods as a challenge. They didnt even realise they were "in the woods"..cause thats all there was.
I find it amusing..I meet young guys in construction all the time, they have read every book known, on the subject ...they are very full of them selves, and sure they know it all.
Then I ask them to do something, and they scratch their heads...can I remember what I read last year?? Nope. I cant remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday! But I know how to do my job, cause I have been doing it all my life.
Anyway. Get out there, and use what you learn..and stop looking at mother nature as an adversary, its just a place in time.
 
Doc, you northerners still do use rocks I guess . There are two large iron meteorites in the Natural History Museum in NYC .The Greenland Eskimos gave them away !!

Pitdog ,your photo is a reminder. Owner of the local sawmill had a black lab .He liked big sticks too. One day there were 4 saw mill people walking side by side . The lab had an 8" stick and ran through the center of the group, the stick perfectly hit all 4 at the backs of their knees !! No I didn't warn them of what was going to happen !
 
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