Technology of the Aboriginal Tasmanians

The technologies that Tasmanians used were very simple but effective. The cutting tools such as knives and axes were produced with the types of rocks that would give sharp, strong and durable edge. The knives were mostly used for such work as skinning animals or sharpening spears, and the axes were mainly used to cut bark for constructing canoes.

               Aboriginal Tasmanians had three preferred weapons for either hunting or fighting. The three preferred weapons were spears, Waddy, and the throwing stone.

When making spear, the most important step was to select the perfect branches for spear making. After, they gently heat the wood with fire to make the wood harder, and finally cut the wood sharper with stone knife. These spears could be thrown with deadly accuracy over 40 meters.

The Waddy was essentially a club that could also be thrown. It was a short, thick stick 60-70 cm long, and Waddy was used in battle and also to kill larger animals such as seals.

 The last weapon was the thrown stone. This is simply throwing a stone at a target, and Baudin, in 1802, noted that a group of Tasmanians on the shore outranged his gun with the thrown stone.

               The fire was also an important factor to survive for Aboriginal Tasmanians as well. Tasmanians carried fire around with them on their travels, even in the short distance. If the fire died for some reason, they were able to use the friction method to create a new fire.

               The string and rope was an important material to survive, and they always carried string and rope around with them along with fire. The string was used for making baskets, water buckets, and sewing skins together. Also, string was used for making bark canoes that were used to travel around the coast.

               The most common form of housing used was a hut made of bark which the French scientist La Billardiere described. However archaeological research showed that more than 20,000 years ago, Tasmania lived in deep caves when the climate was much colder.

               The Tasmanian Aboriginal’s bark canoes were made from the bark of the stringy bark tree or the bark of the paper bark tree. The canoes varied in size and it could carry from one to nine people over distance of several kilometers in the open sea.

Source:
"Tasmanian Aboriginal History." Tasmanian Aboriginal History. N.p., n.d. Web. Oct. 2013. .