Despite the importance of wooden tools for early man, and the development of woodworking in the Mesolithic and Neolithic culture, there has been surprisingly little research on how wood can be worked by stone tools or how wooden handles for composite tools were designed. This paper outlines an approach based on an understanding of the structure and mechanical properties of wood. The cell arrangement in wood makes it far less stiff, strong and tough across the grain, especially tangentially. This makes it hard to harvest wood or break it into lengths because it splits down its centre rather than breaking right across. Fortunately, this also makes wood easy to split along the grain, especially radially through its centre into sections and planks. A model of the splitting process predicted that wood is best split using blunt, broad but smooth wedges, as these would use less energy and would be less likely to get stuck in the wood. The predictions were verified in tests in which hazel coppice poles were split using wedges of contrasting angle, width and surface texture. The results help explain the change from the flaked flint Mesolithic tranchet axes to the broader polished stone Neolithic axe and adze heads. However, further experiments are also needed cutting wood obliquely to test this hypothesis. The splitting model also helps to understand the design of socketed axe hafts. Failure usually occurs when the handles split at the distal and proximal ends of the socket. To prevent this, handles are best designed with the growth rings parallel to the socket, and with an expanded head, especially with flanges on the distal and proximal ends of the socket. These designs are seen in some of the Neolithic axe handles that have been found in Britain, including the Etton, Ehenside and Shulishader axes. More experimental research is needed to understand the optimal way of hafting axe heads.

中文翻译：

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木材的力学性能与新石器时代石斧的设计

尽管木制工具对早期人类的重要性，以及中石器时代和新石器时代文化中木工的发展，但令人惊讶的是，关于如何用石器加工木材或如何设计复合工具的木柄的研究很少。本文概述了一种基于对木材结构和机械性能的理解的方法。木材中的细胞排列使其在整个纹理上的硬度、强度和韧性大大降低，尤其是切向。这使得很难收获木材或将其分解成长度，因为它会从中心分裂而不是直接断裂。幸运的是，这也使得木材很容易沿纹理分裂，特别是通过其中心径向分裂成部分和木板。分裂过程的模型预测，木材最好用钝的、宽而光滑的楔子分裂，因为这些将使用更少的能量并且不太可能卡在木头中。这些预测在测试中得到验证，在这些测试中，使用具有对比角度、宽度和表面纹理的楔子来分割榛树矮林杆。结果有助于解释从片状燧石中石器时代的分批斧到更宽的抛光石新石器时代斧头和锛头的变化。然而，还需要进一步的实验来验证这个假设。拆分模型还有助于理解套筒轴柄的设计。当手柄在插座的远端和近端分开时，通常会发生故障。为防止这种情况，最好将手柄设计为与插座平行的生长环，并具有扩展的头部，特别是在插座的远端和近端具有法兰。这些设计出现在英国发现的一些新石器时代的斧柄中，包括 Etton、Ehenside 和 Shulishader 斧头。需要更多的实验研究来了解将斧头竖起的最佳方式。