The polishing stone

The polishing stone - 6,000 years ago

You are now standing at the northernmost stone of the Holsteen. Do you see the grooves? They are not there by chance! They are traces of prehistoric farmers who used the rock to smooth their flint axes. It’s called polishing. They sanded and sanded until the axe was smooth enough. This made it much easier to chop wood with it.

This polishing stone was clearly used very extensively. It has been worn down to such an extent that today, 6,000 years later, you can still see the traces of all that sanding and polishing.

Task

By now you have undoubtedly learned a great deal about prehistoric times. Ready for a quiz (click here)?

A prehistoric polishing stone

This stone was first named as a polishing stone in 1922 by Prof. J. Hamal-Nandrin and J. Servais from the University of Liège. The presence of grooves on the stone surface led the discoverers to conclude that this was a polishing stone that would have been used in prehistoric times to sharpen stone tools. Over the years, numerous excavations were undertaken around the stone, but no truly clarifying data were found. Research conducted in the autumn of 1987 by Dirk Huyge of the Laboratory of Prehistory at the KU Leuven yielded new finds that shed a clearer light on the stone’s archaeological past. Around the polishing stone, about a hundred prehistoric objects were collected. These were mainly flint flakes, some of which were made into arrowheads. Most of these finds belong to a hunting settlement that is approximately 10,000 to 7,000 years old. These may be related to similar finds at the nearby Kapelberg site.

Of greater significance to the polishing stone was the discovery of a small flake from a polished flint object. Polished objects, axes and chisels were in use in these regions between 4,300 and 700 BCE.

This discovery seems to confirm with certainty the prehistoric character of the polishing stone. A meticulous study of the surface revealed no fewer than 52 polishing marks on the stone, including 51 grooves and one flat polishing area. It can therefore be assumed that both edges and sides of flint objects were smoothed on the stone.

As an archaeological monument, the Holsteen’s prehistoric polishing stone is unique in Flanders.

In order to make the edge smooth and sharp, the flint axe is moved back and forth at an angle on the polishing stone. This creates the linear grooves that we can still see on the stone. ©Gemeente Zonhoven

Source

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X24000233?via%3Dihub

Listening story

Orin: You lot have all sorts of things today that we didn’t have back in prehistoric times. Just think of coloured pencils, a pot of yoghurt, a fleece. But what we did have back then, and you don’t have anymore, is patience. Loads of patience. Take a look at these stones, those grooves – we made them. And by ‘we’, I mean my children’s children, and their children, and their children… Well, you get the picture. Many generations of the Holsteens family have smoothed their axes here. Do you remember me telling you that we make our spearheads from flint? Well, this generation of farmers make their axes from the same hard, sharp stone… (soundscape of father and son grinding stones) Making a good axe is an art, a craft passed down from father to son. Soundscape:

Orin: The farmers chip away at a stone like this until they have a long, flat boulder. They then polish it on these large stones. (soundscape: tap tap tap, ouch, that was my thumb)

Father: A bit of water and sand on the stone makes it easier.

Orin: By this time, the farmers already had fired pots. So fetching water here at the Roosterbeek has become a breeze for these axe-makers.

Father: That’s better (water sound) and then you hold the stone at an angle like this and then sand it down.

Son: How long do we sand it for?

Father: A whole day.

Son: Oh, OK!

Father: And another whole day tomorrow.

Son: Ah, mmm.

Father: And half a day the day after tomorrow.

Son: Ah… yes…

Father: And then it’s ready.

Orin (soundscape): Then into a wooden handle, and our axe is ready.

Father: We’ll start with a pine tree, one about 25 centimetres thick. If you work on that for 20 minutes, it should be on its side. Let’s see how strong you are. (soundscape)

Orin: I know: you lot have no patience and a chainsaw would do it in a minute… But we’ve got muscles, haven’t we! And without going to the gym. Life is our gym.

Son: Heave-ho, heave-ho.

Father: Make this big axe extra smooth and sharp, son, and decorate the handle with notches. I feel my days are numbered; it won’t be long before I die. You must bury the axe with me so that I can carry it with pride as I go to the afterlife. I will show our ancestors that you made the axe, so that they know I have a worthy son who will protect the Holstein lineage for the future. The gods will be well disposed towards you.

Orin: Then I’ll make the finest axe for you.

Music:

Orin: This is where I’ll say goodbye to you all. I’m going back to my family and the reindeer. If you walk back to the start of the trail, you’ll see how the axe has evolved over the centuries. But now you know where it originally came from. And who knows, there might even be a little magic in the axe in your garden shed. And if you love stones and enjoy playing in the woods, you might well be a distant daughter or son of the Holsteens who roamed these vast plains years ago, following in the reindeer’s tracks.