CALORIC WEAPONRY
One can easily see how the common knife might have developed early with primitive man as he found ways to improve his use of foods.
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A flat sliver of rock might well have served well to separate foods which were too firm, or too hot when dragged form the embers - too hot to handle. Any thinking creature would find he or she could use that sliver of rock as a means of cutting the portions which would be easier to handle and to consume. It is not at all difficult think of those person sharpening the edge of the rook on another harder one and finding it could be used to actually sever portions of foods and other humans, as well. The knife, no doubt became a weapon in many way and useful in ways of staying alive. The oldest knives known today are of flint. They date from the Palaeolithic period spanning 500,000 to 10,000 BC.. Others which suggest such use are even older but cannot be authentic. Men discovered how to use copper and, later on, bronze to make better more durable, more efficient blades. .He had learned, a thousand years earlier, to add handles made of wood or bone and covered with animal skins to protect the users hands. Then he found out even better blade could be fashioned of iron. Iron knives were well distributed a thousand years B.C., and the Romans developed different knives with special uses, such as for ritual removal of animal skins and others designed for cutting human hair. He had already learned, maybe a thousand years earlier, that he could attach wooden handles and to cover them with animal skins or fur to protect his hands. The Romans developed different types of knives... some for use in the ritual removal of skin from sacrificial animals and others for cutting human hair.
Most people agree that the knife preceded the development the fork and spoon. Notice, if you will, that we, in our own day, very seldom list them in any other order than knife, fork and spoon.
The development of spoons and forks could well have been a bit more complicated.
The first forks, you might guess, would have had one tine... a point on the end of a stick. It could be used to stab a piece of food and to lift it to the mouth or to hand it across to another person. A two-pronged form at the extended end of a stock would be a normal trend as primitive person who saw how the claws on the leg of a bird pieced, and clasped foods; how twigs divided naturally into several points and the multi-pronged fork of a tree limb would suggest a natural development which man found would work even more efficiently. A twig from a tree is still used when we roast hot dogs. Who can say when such ideas were “invented.”? Or, sharp thorns of animal claws might well have been attached to thee end of stick or bone used in a like manner.
The fork was used in the upper classes but only to a small degree. Many people considered the use of a fork to be social affront suggesting the user judged the user felt himself too good to eat as others did. It been came to be considered an insult to God to make use of a fork in eating, suggesting the user thought he or he could improve on God's intended use of the fingers.
The evolution of the spoon from hollowing out the end portion of a large bone to form a shallow cup at the end or finding a way to attach a portion of a gourd to a stick, are among the early applications of the spoon concept, it appears. The fork and the spoon are, then, studies unto themselves. In time, they came to form knife, fork and spoon sets carried along when one left home and used when they did not cause affront to other diners. Small cutlery cases are among man's dietary rubble in Roman ruins and other sources.
A.L.M. March 13, 2003 [c695wds]
