Experimental Archaeology

The Experimental Building of a Wooden Watchtower in the Carolingian Southern Frontier

Author(s)

Imma Ollich-Castanyer ^1,2 ✉,

Albert Pratdesaba ²,

Montserrat de Rocafiguera ²,

Maria Ocaña ²,

Oriol Amblàs ²,

M. Àngels Pujol ²,

David Serrat ^2,3

Publication Date

2018-02-25

EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1

10th EAC Leiden 2017
***During fifteen days of June 2015, the team of l’Esquerda worked in a research project to build a Carolingian wooden watchtower on the River Ter, in Roda de Ter, Catalonia, Spain. The idea was to test our hypotheses experimentally, (a) if the wooden watchtower could...

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‘Re-rolling’ a Mummy: an Experimental Spectacle at Manchester Museum

Author(s)

Lidija McKnight ¹ ✉

Publication Date

2018-02-25

EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1

Introduction

The unwrapping and dissection of mummified bodies was a common practice in 19th century Europe. These autopsies were conducted as part of scientific endeavours and social spectacles, motivated by a desire to advance the fields of science, medicine and archaeology, coupled with a sense of macabre fascination (Moshenska, 2014). The scientific capability required to study mummified remains non-invasively had yet to be developed, leading to the destruction of many hundreds of specimens.

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Some Remarks on Technological Process of Tartessian Pottery

Author(s)

Michał Krueger ¹ ✉,

Marta Krueger ²,

Karol Jakubowski 2

Publication Date

2018-02-25

EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1

This paper makes an attempt to examine the Tartessian ceramics not from a traditional typological posture seeking the chronological sequences, but from an uncommon approach, where experiment plays an important role. The goal is to shed light on these still relatively weakly recognised aspects of the study of the pottery from the South-western part of Iberian Peninsula...

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Go study Experimental Archaeology in York

Unearth new answers to age-old questions! The University of York offers a new MSc/MA course in Material Culture and Experimental Archaeology starting in 2018. It is either 1 year full time or 2-3 years part time. Interweaving practical and theoretical approaches to material culture, this course explores ethnoarchaeological and experimental archaeological approaches to objects, alongside functional analyses of a broad range of artefact types.

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University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)

Member of EXARC

The School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies is one of the leaders in African rock art studies, Palaeoarchaeology, the Stone Age, pre-colonial farming and herding societies and the formation of modern cultural identities in the last five hundred years.

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The Mechanics of Splitting Wood and the Design of Neolithic Woodworking Tools

Author(s)

Roland Ennos ¹ ✉,

J. A. Ventura Oliveira ¹

Publication Date

2017-11-20

EXARC Journal Issue 2017/4

Because of the anisotropy of wood, trunks and branches can be vulnerable to splitting along the grain, especially radially. This fact was widely exploited in pre-industrial times, when wood was mostly cut and shaped by splitting it along the grain while still green, rather than by sawing...

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Now we’re Cooking with Gas! How Experimental Archaeology Challenges Modern Assumptions about Metal Recycling

Author(s)

E. Giovanna Fregni ¹ ✉

Publication Date

2017-11-20

EXARC Journal Issue 2017/4

It is accepted knowledge that when re-melting alloys, some of the metal with a lower melting temperature is lost through oxidation, and more metal must be added in order to maintain the desired alloy proportions. In order to understand the changes in alloy content when recycling using Bronze Age technology, experiments were undertaken by the author and others...

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Kicking Ash, Viking Glass Bead Making

Author(s)

Neil Peterson ¹ ✉

Publication Date

2017-11-20

EXARC Journal Issue 2017/4

Experiment Background

Unfortunately, no intact furnaces survive. Only the base plates for these potential furnaces and an additional scattering of sherds exist in the archaeological record. Thus, the shape of the body, lid, and chimneys must be inferred and then tested through experimental bead production.

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