[Terrapreta] Earthen Kiln Conjecture

[MFH]

Kurt

I tend to agree.

PNG village men send a lot of time sitting down, but when necessary they can
be startlingly committed. I have often seen a large tree (maybe 80cm/2.5ft
diam) attacked and felled by a group for the sole purpose of capturing a 1kg
(2lb) marsupial from the upper branches. Admittedly they used steel axes,
but these were the "fighting" kind - a long handle and a head only 75mm/3"
wide and weighing very little.

There are also other ways of felling or killing large trees. Often mature
trees are "pipey", i.e. that have a hollow core resulting from rain water
entry through some damage higher up, causing decay from the inside. Light a
fire inside the base and over a period of maybe weeks the tree burns from
the inside out.

Max H


-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Kurt Treutlein
Sent: Thursday, 24 April 2008 5:01 PM
To: terra pretta group
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Earthen Kiln Conjecture

Robert Klein wrote:
> I never took seriously the argument that the Indians ever felled trees.
That needs a steel axe.  Before the steel axe, the tree was killed by
girdling the tree and allowing it to collapse which is a very quick process
in the rain forest.  The labor aspect was obviously incredible.
>   
Rubbish!!!
The New Guinea people also did not have steel tools untill the coming of 
the whiteman. They felled tree with stone implements, usually rather 
like adzes, with ground blades made of a particularly tough rock, 
imported from many days walk away. I've seen two men fell a tree, 
somewhat thicker than thigh size in an afternoon. Mainly by a process of 
pounding the wood to fibrous matchsticks. Hard work it's true, but quite 
possible. They similarly felled and prepared kwila ( very hard timber) 
house posts, often muchly carved, using stone tools. They carved large 
(50foot) long canoes from red cedar wood, they made large wooden drums 
from hardwood, all using stone adzes and fire where appropriate. Of 
course, they embraced steel axes and bushknives (machetes) and steel 
planeblades and chisels and knives with enthusiasm when they became 
available.

People need to stop armchairing this sort of endeavour, based on little 
or no actual experience.


Kurt
who spent nearly 20 years in New Guinea.

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