experimental archaeology

Designing Experimental Research in Archaeology is a recently published guide to planning and conducting archaeological experiments. Edited by Jeffrey R. Ferguson, a research assistant professor at the archaeometry laboratory at the University of Colorado, the book aims to guide researchers through methodology and experiment design...

It may appear odd or redundant to reprint a book that was published in 1979. The subject will have moved on, more will have been discovered, new techniques will have been developed. But this is partly the point: Experimental Archaeology by John Coles is a foundation text for the subject as a whole...

A wide range of conferences on experimental archaeology and open air museums took place in 2010 and 2011, both in Europe and the Americas. This brief summary is based on the conference reviews from our contributors which can all be accessed freely on EXARC JOURNAL website from early 2012 on...

Recent years have shown an upsurge of activities related to experimental archaeology in Norway. The time was therefore ripe to arrange a meeting (7 May 2011) and there was talk of forming a formal network for experimental archaeology in Norway. The previous meeting of the sort was in 2005, and the idea of a seminar was well received...

In November 2009, the idea for launching a network on adult education in EXARC was picked up. The first step was a preparation meeting in Oerlinghausen, Germany where we met with about 20 EXARC members from almost all corners of Europe. By mid 2010, 15 organisations, including EXARC itself joined in two so called Grundtvig Learning Partnerships, funded by the European Union...

With Jānis Apals, who died at the age of 80 after a short illness, the international world of experimental archaeology looses a valued friend and colleague. EXARC remembers Jānis Apals as an energetic archaeologist, standing strong for...

Who are the contributors?

First of all it is interesting to see who the participants in the discussion of the archaeological experiment are. Certainly, the articles I have selected and read are only representative of a fraction of the contributions, but it is clear that it is primarily those who work with experimental archaeology in their research. Participants from outside this group are rare. This is regrettable as the archaeological experiment is an important method in archaeological research in general.

An interview with Hans-Ole Hansen, founding father of the Lejre Research Centre (DK), historical workshops and inspirer to many.
"In Lejre, we worked 30 years with education and experiment. There is always an exchange between education and research."...

In 1966 just outside the boundary of a hill fort known as Kemerton Camp on top of Bredon Hill (Hencken 1939) in Worcestershire a small roundhouse was reconstructed, based upon the excavations carried out at Glastonbury Lake Village some fifty years before (Reynolds 1967a, Bullied and Grey 1911). A group of students under the guidance of Mr. Philip Barker of Birmingham University, carrying out a routine site visit, were deeply impressed to come across the three dimensional reality of something which had been previously discussed in vacuo.