Experimental Archaeology

Experimental Approach to Flint Shaft Mining: Understanding the Extraction Process and the Technical Gesture at Casa Montero (Madrid, Spain)

Author(s)
Marie-Élise Porqueddu 1 ✉,
Nuria Castañeda Clemente 2,
Javier Baena Preysler 3
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2024/2
Since prehistory, human populations have developed specific knowledge related to the excavating and exploitation of underground resources. These abilities are reflected in the tools used to extract and process raw materials and the use of specific architectural expressions such as rock-cut tombs...

A Scheme of Evolution for Throwing Sticks

Author(s)
Luc Bordes 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2024/2
Prehistoric wooden projectiles likely have a complex evolutionary story in a similar way to stone tools, depending on their functions, and the cognitive and physical capabilities of hominins who used them. The technologies of some ancient projectiles (e.g., spears, arrows) can be studied more directly because they were equipped with...

Experiments on Painting Viking Age Woodwork

Author(s)
Nanna Friis Hellström 1 ✉,
Anna Vebæk Gelskov 1,
Sofie Louise Andersen 1,
Henriette Lyngstrøm 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2024/1
Traditionally, studies on Viking Age pigmentation have focused on the minerals used to produce colours. The research conducted in this article concerns other factors, that might have influenced painted wood such as surface treatments, outlines, and paint components...

An Experimental Reconstruction of Hair Colours from the Jin and Tang Dynasties (265-907 AD) in China

Author(s)
Bangcheng Tang 1 ✉,
Yan Xue 2,
Yijie Yan 2,
Bo Yuan 2
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2024/1
Hair colours, as a daily cosmetic used in ancient Chinese life, often appear in ancient Chinese medical books, according to types, and can be classified into herbal hair colours and mineral hair colours.

Scraping Seal Skins with Mineral Additives

Author(s)
Lasse van den Dikkenberg 1 ✉,
Diederik Pomstra 1,
Annelou van Gijn 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2024/1
Neolithic scrapers from the Vlaardingen Culture (3400-2500 BC) display a variety of hide-working traces, amongst which traces interpreted as being the result of contact with dry hide. It has been suggested that, potentially, some of these implements were used to scrape fatty hides with mineral additives. Therefore, a series of experiments...

Historisches Handwerk L. Intichar (AT)

We provide demonstrations of historic crafts at medieval fairs and sometimes schools.

We provide demonstrations of historic crafts at medieval fairs and sometimes schools. Our current main focus is textile dyeing. Trained in history and archaeology, we started historic craft demonstrations as spare time activity and in order to not lose contact with our academic professions. Demonstrating historic crafts has also been a preferred way to continue the focus on experimental archeology developed during studies.

Experimental Archaeology and the Sustainability of Dental Calculus Research: The Case of Chocolate and the Nuns Of S. Maria Della Stella’s Church, Saluzzo, Italy

Author(s)
Sarah Sandron 1 ✉,
Anita Radini 2,
Dominique Scalarone 3,
Beatrice Demarchi 1,
Rosa Boano 1,
Alison Beach 4,
Cynthianne Spiteri 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/4
In Italy, chocolate (Theobroma cacao L.) was introduced during the Columbian exchange, and it quickly became both an important and accessible part of the Italian culinary tradition. Today, Italy is Europe’s second-largest chocolate producer...

Can Experimental Archaeology Confirm Ethnographic Evidence? The Case of Aboriginal Boomerangs Used as Retouchers

Author(s)
Eva Francesca Martellotta 1, 2 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/4
In this article, an experimental programme is used to examine how boomerangs may be used to retouch stone tools. The programme's findings confirm ethnographic data pertaining to the employment of hardwood boomerangs in retouching activities and investigate their technological similarities to Palaeolithic bone retouchers...

How were Half-Moons on Shells Made in the Upper Palaeolithic? An Experimental Approach

Author(s)
Annamaria Daniele 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/4
In the Upper Palaeolithic levels of the site of Grotta Continenza (Abruzzo, Italy), numerous shells shaped as half-moons have been found. These artifacts, being important examples of ancient ornaments, have been regularly subjects of study, but the production process has only been hypothesised...

Casting a Copper Age Axe Using a Replica of the Marl Mould Found in Baffoni Cave (AN)

Author(s)
Mauro Fiorentini 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/3

These three artefacts suggested that some kind of metal working had most probably been carried out in the cave: Radmilli first described the mould as “a clay mould for casting… containing a piece of copper” (Radmilli, 1956, pp.