Experimental Archaeology

An Experimental Approach to Tannur Ovens and Bread Making in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula during the Iron Age

Author(s)
Carmen Ramírez Cañas 1 ✉,
Penélope I. Martínez de los Reyes 1,
Antonio M. Sáez Romero 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/2
Culinary culture has played an essential role in the configuration and interaction of human societies throughout history, shaping both individual and collective identities. Like the modern Mediterranean diet, Phoenician-Punic subsistence relied on cereals, often in the form of...

The Production of Roman Metal Screw Threads

Author(s)
David Sim 1 ✉,
Chris Legg 2
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/2
The production of Roman screws and screw threads is a topic that is largely absent in the archaeological literature. During the Roman period, small metal screw threads were used both as fastenings and to impart motion. This paper will show that it is possible to produce small metal screw threads using very simple technology that was well within the skill set of any competent metal worker...

Department of Archaeology and Sheffield Archaeomaterials, University of Sheffield (UK)

Member of EXARC
Yes

Experimental archaeology has been a core research and teaching methodology at Sheffield since the early-1990s. Crossing archaeomaterials and environmental archaeology, experimental investigations are a key component of our work and have offered a multifaceted approach to our research. We integrate experimental methodologies and practice into our taught modules to inform interpretation as part of understanding our past. 

Our research covers a vast number of archaeological periods from prehistory to recent history, working closely with modern practitioners to inform our work in a collaborative environment.

Peat Burns: The Methods and Implications of Peat Charcoaling

Author(s)
Paul M. Jack 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/1
The Northern Isles of Scotland offer a fascinating case study for understanding past economies and resource management due to the comparative lack of trees found elsewhere in the British Isles. Archaeological evidence proves that this environment did not prevent the development of industrial pursuits in this region during the Iron Age and local accounts dating to ...

Hard Fun: Further Discussions on an Undergraduate Project to (Re)Construct and Fire a Medieval Tile Kiln

Author(s)
Gaynor Wood 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/1
This experiment, undertaken over a 12-month period in 2015 at Norton Priory Museum in Cheshire, formed part of a pedagogic case study and an experimental archaeology project. Here eight Archaeology and 12 Ceramics students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) researched, built, and fired a tile kiln using evidence from previous experimental archaeology projects on the site and other firing projects...

Leave your Stamp: Reconstruction of the Scarab Production Chain

Author(s)
Natasha Solodenko-Vernovsky 1 ✉,
Noa Ranzer 2,3,
Alex Kuklin 3,
Inbar Meyerson 3,
Evgeny Gasin 4,
Ido Koch 3
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/1
Scarabs are beetle-shaped seals originating in Egypt during the third millennium BC. They were first imported into the southern Levant during the early second millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age I), leading to a flourishing of local production in the following centuries. From this point until the late first millennium BC, scarabs were the most common...

An Experimental Approach to Ancient Egyptian Metalworking: The Mysteries of the Sesheshet

Author(s)
Chelsea Kaufman 1 ✉,
Benjamin Doddy 2
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/4
Our research represents a case study in ancient metalworking to illuminate the challenges, processes, and both human and material agency behind these objects. We focus on copper alloy Hathoric loop sistra since these musical instruments are steeped in ritual and mythological connections to metalworking. Our work represents the early stages of our ongoing investigations...

Function Follows Form: Assessing the Functionality of Shells and Greenstone Shell Effigies as Formative Period Mesoamerican Textile Fabrication Tools, Part 1: Tagelus plebeius Atlantic Stout Razor Clam Shells

Author(s)
Billie J. A. Follensbee 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/4
Although the importance of textiles in Mesoamerica from the Classic period (AD 250-900) onward is well-recognised, until recently little research or exploration of earlier Mesoamerican textile production has been conducted. This paucity of scholarship is attributable predominantly to the scant preservation of perishable ancient tools and textiles...

LAPEEX - New Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology in Brazil

Submitted by EXARC on

The Laboratory for Evolutionary and Experimental Archaeology and Prehistory (LAPEEX - Laboratório de Arqueologia e Pré-História Evolutiva e Experimental), headed by EXARC Member Prof. Dr. João Carlos Moreno de Sousa, is the newest laboratory for experimental archaeology in Brazil. LAPEEX integrates the Institute of Humanities and Information at the Federal University of Rio Grande,  located in Rio Grande city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil.

Examining the Physical Signatures of Pre-Electric Tattooing Tools and Techniques

Author(s)
Aaron Deter-Wolf 1 ✉,
Danny Riday 2,
Maya Sialuk Jacobsen 3
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/3
This paper presents the first experimental archaeological study to formally compare the physical characteristics of tattoos made on human skin using multiple pre-modern tools and tattooing techniques. Our project used eight tools fashioned from animal bone, obsidian, copper, and boar tusk, along with a modern steel needle, to create tattoos on the leg of co-author Danny Riday...