Ancient Technology
Experimental Reconstruction of a Nineteenth Century Lower Limb Prosthetic Peg Leg – The Box Leg
***Scientific attempts to understand early prosthesis manufacturing techniques are rare. The academic research of artificial limbs has been limited to the historical analysis of documentary sources. This area still remains a fairly under-researched topic even under the more recent developments of disability studies (Childress, 1985)...
Some Uses of Experiment for Understanding Early Knitting and Erasmus' Bonnet
***Of Erasmus, prince of humanists (1466?-1536), no less than eight portraits from life survive – all eight in the exact same bonnet. A recently published investigation of this iconic garment (Kruseman, Sturtewagen and Malcolm-Davies, 2016) involved establishing a 250-year typology of the bonnet from iconographical sources, compiling technological and...
A Seventh Century BC Picenian Cloack Clasp Made of Iron, Bone, Bronze and Amber: Reconstruction of a Masterpiece
Traction Trebuchet
Animal Teeth in a Late Mesolithic Woman’s Grave, Reconstructed as a Rattling Ornament on a Baby Pouch
***In one of the Late Mesolithic graves at Skateholm, Sweden, dating from 5500–4800 BC, was buried a woman together with a newborn baby. Altogether 32 perforated wild boar (Sus scrofa) teeth, along with traces of red ochre pigment, were found in this grave. We interpreted these artefacts as a rattling ornament decorating a baby pouch...
Adze-plane, Skeparnon, Multipurpose Adze or Two-handled Adze? Practical Work with an Alleged Predecessor of the Woodworking Plane
***This article presents a practical approach to a Graeco-Roman woodworking tool called “ascia-Hobel” in the archaeological literature, respectively “adze-plane” as the corresponding English term. The tool in question consists of an often semi-circular adze-blade attached to a two-handled shaft and seems to be suited both for chopping and...
Museum Batavialand (NL)
Batavialand is both an indoor museum and a historical shipyard. Here you can see how ships are built and conserved, visit the reconstruction of the 17th century VOC ship the Batavia and find out more about the Dutch role in water management worldwide. There is special attention for the province Flevoland (which includes 450 shipwrecks) and the Zuiderzeeproject.
Batavialand is both an indoor museum and a historical shipyard. Here you can see how ships are built and conserved, visit the reconstruction of the 17th century VOC ship the Batavia and find out more about the Dutch role in water management worldwide...