Grwwwvy t1_it7hl6v wrote
Reply to comment by totallynotliamneeson in Researchers look to unravel story of Islamic glass found in Scottish castle - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News by GullyShotta
Do you ever feel like stone tools fell out of fashion too early? It seems to me that most cooking and eating tools could be stone instead of plastic or metal. After throwing out a lot of teflon pans and easily broken plastic cups, it makes me think such things.
Are there any stone tools you think should be picked back up? I use a mortar and pestle instead of a food processor for instance.
totallynotliamneeson t1_it7jcdi wrote
Eh maybe. There is a reason they were replaced in the manner that they were in many cultures. For example, along the Great Lakes we see that many cultures begin to replace stone points and knives with copper elements scrapped from copper trade goods as soon as they had access to the trade goods. Copper was easier to work with, easier to rework, and simply just sturdier than a stone tool. Once the British and French started trading copper pots we suddenly see that everyone is obtaining these pots and dismantling them to use the copper for tools. Parts of the rim would become knives or fishing hooks, for example. I'm generalizing for a bit, but the biggest reason people went away from stone tools is that they can be finicky to work with. I flintknap in my free time, and it can be VERY frustrating to spend an hour on a point only to have it break because I hit in incorrectly when trying to break a flake off.
[deleted] t1_it7r6hr wrote
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The_wolf2014 t1_it8yu2y wrote
There's a reason we still use ceramics for plates, cups, bowls etc... not strictly stoneware but I suppose it could still come under that bracket. Weve made items from ceramic for a long time and it's incredibly durable, cheap, easy to clean and tough. Look at how we'll preserved many roman mosaics are as well
Larsus-Maximus t1_it9l5mg wrote
Of course, ceramics is just stoneware without most of the downsides
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