fulltext - Simple search

Jan Apel
The later stages of dagger production, however, were conducted at the set
tlements and the production debitage is often found secondarily deposited in
depressions belonging to dwelling structures. Typical examples of such sites
are Myrhöj, a settlement with evidence of at least three longhouses containing
dagger preforms and production debitage (Jensen 1973; Apel 2001) and Gug,
where production debitage was located in a depression, probably belonging
to a longhouse similar to the ones at Myrhöj (Brøndstedt 1957; Simonsen
1982; Olausson 2000; Apel 2001). On these settlements, evidence of high
quality knapping as well as knapping of lower quality has been recognised.
A closer examination of the production debitage from Myrhöj revealed that
the production of everyday items, as well as of more elaborate artefacts such
investigated by Olausson (2000), may be explained in the same way (Apel
2001:199). Thus the early dagger production stages were conducted at se
now need a generalised way of evaluating the degree of skill that is based in
through a rupture with the folk categories connected to the object of study.
In the present case, when the question concerns the degree of skill needed
we need to make a clear break with the conceptions of skill that everyday
language supplies. This was achieved by classifying the stages according to
nology, assumed to have transhistorical qualities, we may say that knowledge
tion that is acquired within the body (muscle memory). A subjective judge
was made for each production stage (Figs 5 & 6). Accordingly, the stages that
rely on theoretical knowledge and that demand a lower degree of practical
ence. Stages that require years of practical training, on the other hand (for
instance stages 5, 7 and 8), can only be executed by experienced knappers.
214