THE WOODEN TOOLS IN GREEK PREHISTORY: SIGNS OF AN EARLY TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Reconstructing Prehistoric artifacts from the Paleolithic period enables us to recognize the genesis of systematically applying knowledge to primitive practical tasks. Despite the aforesaid, the real evolution of tools’ technology took place during the Bronze Age. Except for the axe, the adzeaxe and the hammer, familiar instruments in all the craft domains, there were tools of an advanced technology, among them the ruler and the level, evidence of early mathematical thought. These tools, made of wood and raw materials, have not been preserved due to the climatic conditions of Greece. Knowledge of said tools has come, however, from other sources namely the Minoan hieroglyphs and their Egyptian parallels occasionally depicted on wall paintings. We are able to recognize amongst them combined instruments like the plane and the compass. Today the comparative study of scripts and ideograms coming from different civilizations: Greek, Hittite, Sumerian, Egyptian and Hindu and their preserved stone, bone, wood and metal artifacts permit us to study influences between them.