Featured in the EXARC Journal

Ancient Technology

Bast, Ferns, and Mud: Experimental Recreation of a Kapa Kaha (Barkcloth)

Author(s)
Avalon Paradea 1
Publication Date
#EAC12 World Tour 2021
***Kapa (Hawaiian barkcloth) was the ubiquitous fabric of historic Hawaiʻi, used for everything from clothing to bedding, from swaddling newborns to enshrouding the deceased, and all things in between. This textile is crafted from the bast (inner bark) of several plant species...

Identifying Ceramic Shaping Techniques: Experimental Results Using the Inclusion and Void Orientation Method

Author(s)
Jon Ross 1 ✉,
Kent Fowler 2
Publication Date
This contribution presents the results of experiments using a simple but effective inclusion and void orientation method for identifying shaping techniques on cut and scanned vessels and sherds. Not only does it provide an additional line of complementary evidence for differentiating ceramic chaînes opératoires, but we argue that it offers observations not accessible by other imaging methods and scales of analysis...

Roman Gold Washing as Described by Pliny the Elder

Author(s)
Brigitte Cech
Heimo Urban
Publication Date
#EAC12 World Tour 2021
***As part of a four-year interdisciplinary research project of a Roman gold mine in the landscape known as the "Karth" to the south of Vienna, Austria, a reconstruction of gold washing took place as described by Pliny the Elder in book 33 of his Natural History. So far, the "Karth" is the only proven Roman gold mine known in the Eastern Alps...