[Terrapreta] Earthen Kiln Conjecture

[lou gold]

I pulled this from the TP archives.
It needs to be considered in this conversation.
Please watch it...

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/2






On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 5:13 AM, MFH <mfh01 at bigpond.net.au> wrote:

> 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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