mattock

A mattock has a shaft, typically made of wood, which is {{convert|3|-|4|ft|1|abbr=on}} long.{{cite book |author=Cathy Cromell |year=2010 |title=Composting For Dummies |publisher=For Dummies |isbn=978-0-470-58161-2 |chapter=Tools of the Trade |pages=15–28 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_taRoN5gElMC&pg=PA24}} The head consists of two ends, opposite each other and separated by a central eye. A mattock head typically weighs {{convert|3|-|7|lb|abbr=on}}. The form of the head determines the kind and uses of the mattock:

• A cutter mattock combines the functions of an axe and adze, with its axe blade oriented vertically and longer adze horizontally.
• A pick mattock combines the function of a pick and adze, with a pointed end opposite an adze blade.

Both are used for grubbing in hard soils and rocky terrain,{{cite book |author=Robert C. Birkby |year=2006 |title=Lightly on the Land: the SCA Trail-building and Maintenance Manual |edition=2nd |publisher=The Mountaineers Books |isbn=978-0-89886-848-7 |chapter=Tools |pages=75–102 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xD6ThtJNgLkC&pg=PA86}} with the pick mattock having the advantage of a superior penetrating tool over the cutter mattock, which excels at cutting roots.

File:Mattocking.jpg to excavate]]

Mattocks are "the most versatile of hand-planting tools". They can be used to chop into the ground with the adze and pull the soil towards the user, opening a slit to plant into.{{cite book |author=Robert D. Wray |year=2009 |edition=4th |title=Christmas Trees for Pleasure and Profit |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-4417-5 |chapter=The planting job |pages=75–92 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rBbZtqi6RaEC&pg=PA82}} They can also be used to dig holes for planting into, and are particularly useful where there is a thick layer of matted sod. The use of a mattock can be tiring because of the effort needed to drive the blade into the ground, and the amount of bending and stooping involved.

The adze of a mattock is useful for digging or hoeing, especially in hard soil.

Cutter mattocks ({{langx|sw|jembe-shoka}}) are used in rural Africa for removing stumps from fields, including unwanted banana suckers.{{cite book |author=Björn Mothander, Finn Kjærby & Kjell J. Havnevik |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn%3Anbn%3Ase%3Anai%3Adiva-379 |title=Farm Implements for Small-scale Farmers in Tanzania |publisher=Nordic Africa Institute |year=1989 |isbn=978-91-7106-290-1 |pages=22–72 |chapter=Types of farm implements used in Tanzania |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0N0mJ8cvM2gC&pg=PA41}}

As a simple but effective tool, mattocks have a long history. Their shape was already established by the Bronze Age in Asia Minor and ancient Greece.{{cite book |author=Isabelle Kelly Raubitschek |year=1998 |title=The Metal Objects (1952-1989) |series=Volume 7 of Isthmia: Excavations by the University of Chicago, Under the Auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens |publisher=American School of Classical Studies at Athens |isbn=978-0-87661-937-7 |chapter=Tools |pages=119–130 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGHu_Ki7QzoC&pg=PA119}} According to Sumerian mythology, the mattock was invented by the god Enlil.{{cite book | last1 = Hooke | first1 = S. H. | authorlink1 = S. H. Hooke | title = Middle Eastern Mythology | publisher = Dover Publications | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0486435510}} Mattocks ({{langx|el|μάκελλα}}) are the most commonly depicted tool in Byzantine manuscripts of Hesiod's Works and Days.{{cite book |editor=George Fletcher Bass & James W. Allan |year=2004 |title=Serçe Limani: an Eleventh-century Shipwreck, Volume 2 |series=Volume 4 of The Nautical archaeology series |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-0-89096-947-2 |chapter=Tools |author=Frederick M. Hocker |pages=297–328 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E6ZJ-05aC-sC&pg=PA315}}

Mattocks made from antlers first appear in the British Isles in the Late Mesolithic. They were probably used chiefly for digging, and may have been related to the rise of agriculture.{{cite book |author=I. J. Thorpe |year=1996 |title=The Origins of Agriculture in Europe |series=Material Cultures Series |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-08009-5 |chapter=The introduction of farming to Britain and Ireland |pages=94–118 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XdEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA103}} Mattocks made of whalebone were used for tasks including flensing – stripping blubber from the carcass of a whale – by the broch people of Scotland and by the Inuit.{{cite book |author=Vicki Ellen Szabo |year=1997 |chapter=The use of whales in early Medieval Britain |pages=137–158 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=___Q9caeqdoC&pg=PA154 |title=Studies in Medieval History |series=Volume 9 of The Haskins Society Journal |editor=C. P. Lewis |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-0-85115-831-0}}

{{wiktionary|mattock}}

The word mattock is of unclear origin; one theory traces it from Proto-Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European. There are no clear cognates in other Germanic languages, and similar words in various Celtic languages are borrowings from the English (e.g. {{langx|cy|matog}}, {{langx|ga|matóg}}, {{langx|gd|màdog}}).{{OED|Mattock}} However, there are proposed cognates in Old High German and Middle High German, and more speculatively with words in Balto-Slavic languages, including Old Church Slavonic {{lang|cu|motyga}} and Lithuanian {{lang|lt|matikas}}, and even Sanskrit. It may be cognate to or derived from the unattested Vulgar Latin {{lang|la|matteūca}}, meaning club or cudgel. The New English Dictionary of 1906 interpreted mattock as a diminutive, but there is no root to derive it from, and no semantic reason for the diminutive formation. Forms such as mathooke, motthook and mathook were produced by folk etymology. Although used to prepare whale blubber, which the Inuit call "mattaq", no such connection is known.

While the noun mattock is attested from Old English onwards, the transitive verb "to mattock" or "to mattock up" first appeared in the mid-17th century.

{{Commons category|Mattocks}}

• Dolabra
• Ice axe
• Pickaxe
• Pottiputki

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Forestry tools}}

{{Garden tools}}

Category:Mechanical hand tools

Category:Gardening tools

Category:Forestry tools