Sickle teeth, Sickles and Bronze Age: The contribution of an Experimental Mowing Program

Abstract

Although the so-called sickle blades are well known in all their morphological, technological and functional aspects, it was considered necessary to develop a new experimental archaeology program in order to validate some of the hypothesis raised up until now and delve into the study of the variables that condition the formation of use-wear marks in those tools. In this study, we have compared the traceological results obtained from the experimental program and from a varied set of sickle blades from different archaeological settlements in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. Among other conclusions it can be pointed out that these lithic pieces were used mainly attached to a handle in mowing activities. The lifespan of sickle blades in mowing is very long, up to several days of work. In addition, sickle teeth were not used as in current threshing sledges, inserted into large wooden boards.