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Originally Posted by VANDOO
THE SICKLE AND BILLHOOK HAVE A HISTORY PREDATING THE METAL VERSION IN SOME SOCIETYS. THE OLDEST AUTHENTIC EXAMPLE I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN WAS IN THE MUSEUM AT CAIRO EGYPT. IT WAS WOOD IN SCYCLE SHAPE WITH A GROOVE ALONG THE INSIDE CURVE INSET WITH CLOSELY SET FLINT BLADES TO FORM A GOOD CUTTING EDGE.
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Flint sickles, with a body made of antler, wood or bone, with the flints held in by resin have been found in Iron Age sites in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Stone axes are also well known, but the billhooks appears to have first appeared in the Bronze Age, with small pruning hooks cast in stone moulds, similar to those used for bronze sickles. Bronze sickles and pruning hooks (billhooks) would appear to have originated in ancient Sumer(ia) in lower Mesopotania c 2900BC, now modern Iraq & Iran, and spread east into Egypt and Greece, and west into India.The billhook, as we know it today, appears to date from the Iron Age, and was common in Britain before the Roman occupation c 50BC. Roman billhooks, sickles and other tools are still regularly found on archelogical dig sites and are almost identical to modern versions. Up until the mid to late 19th century the small billhook, or pruning hook, would have been the tool used by all gardeners, fruit tree and wine growers for pruning etc.