Experimental Archaeology

Hard Fun: Further Discussions on an Undergraduate Project to (Re)Construct and Fire a Medieval Tile Kiln

Author(s)
Gaynor Wood 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/1
This experiment, undertaken over a 12-month period in 2015 at Norton Priory Museum in Cheshire, formed part of a pedagogic case study and an experimental archaeology project. Here eight Archaeology and 12 Ceramics students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) researched, built, and fired a tile kiln using evidence from previous experimental archaeology projects on the site and other firing projects...

Leave your Stamp: Reconstruction of the Scarab Production Chain

Author(s)
Natasha Solodenko-Vernovsky 1 ✉,
Noa Ranzer 2,3,
Alex Kuklin 3,
Inbar Meyerson 3,
Evgeny Gasin 4,
Ido Koch 3
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2023/1

Introduction

Scarabs were the most common type of seal-amulet in Egypt and the southern Levant during the second millennium BC, spanning the Levantine Middle and Late Bronze Ages (Keel, 2004, pp.73–101; Ben-Tor, 2007, p.119).

Function Follows Form: Assessing the Functionality of Shells and Greenstone Shell Effigies as Formative Period Mesoamerican Textile Fabrication Tools, Part 1: Tagelus plebeius Atlantic Stout Razor Clam Shells

Author(s)
Billie J. A. Follensbee 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/4

Review of the Research

Scholarship of the past century has demonstrated that textiles have long played an important role in Mesoamerica, from the Classic period (AD 250-900) through contemporary cultures.

LAPEEX - New Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology in Brazil

Submitted by EXARC on

The Laboratory for Evolutionary and Experimental Archaeology and Prehistory (LAPEEX - Laboratório de Arqueologia e Pré-História Evolutiva e Experimental), headed by EXARC Member Prof. Dr. João Carlos Moreno de Sousa, is the newest laboratory for experimental archaeology in Brazil. LAPEEX integrates the Institute of Humanities and Information at the Federal University of Rio Grande,  located in Rio Grande city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil.

Examining the Physical Signatures of Pre-Electric Tattooing Tools and Techniques

Author(s)
Aaron Deter-Wolf 1 ✉,
Danny Riday 2,
Maya Sialuk Jacobsen 3
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/3
This paper presents the first experimental archaeological study to formally compare the physical characteristics of tattoos made on human skin using multiple pre-modern tools and tattooing techniques. Our project used eight tools fashioned from animal bone, obsidian, copper, and boar tusk, along with a modern steel needle, to create tattoos on the leg of co-author Danny Riday...

Pit Preserve from Ida – on the Problem of Charred Seeds from Prehistoric Pits

Author(s)
Lutz Zwiebel 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/3

Introduction

A wild seed propagator and gardener (such as myself) relies on years of close human-plant interaction. The adaptability of domesticated and many wild plants to human economy and behaviour has always thrilled me. When I first read archaeological reports of frequent and large amounts of prehistoric charred seeds that were dumped in the ground I was bemused. It contrasted starkly with the care and sensitivity I use in the processes of seed harvest, drying and selection. So I started reading more and also charring seeds myself.

The Arrow Quiver of the Iceman Reconstruction Attempts and the Special Significance of the Fur Material

Author(s)
Markus Klek 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/3
In 1991, the sensational discovery of a male mummy, thawing from the ice, was made on the Tisenjoch in the Ötztal Alps, near the Austrian-Italian border. The deceased man lived about 5300 years ago at the end of the Neolithic Age and is commonly known as Ötzi in German-speaking countries. The site also contained many well-preserved accompanying items and equipment...

Scored Basins from Late Minoan Crete: an Experimental Interpretation from Construction to Functionality

Author(s)
Brianna Jenkins 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/2
During the Bronze Age in Crete, agriculture, pottery production, metallurgy, textiles, architectural feats, trade, and other specializations flourished. Throughout habitation on Crete, pottery production was an area of craftsmanship and practicality from the end of the Neolithic to Mycenean and Iron Age. This experiment, however, relates to the Late Minoan I period in the geographical region of Mochlos...

Experimental Archaeology of Iron Age Firing Structures from the Western Mediterranean

Author(s)
Maria-Carme Belarte 1,2 ✉,
María Pastor Quiles 2,3,
Marta Portillo 4,5,
Carme Saorin 6,7,
Marta Mateu Sagués 2,
Alessandra Pecci 8,9,
Sílvia Vila 10,11,
Josep Pou 12,
Georgina Castells 12,
Jordi Morer 13,
Joaquín Fernández 14,
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/2

The TRANSCOMB project

This research project, which started in 2020 and is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, is led by the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC) and counts on the participation of about 20 researchers from different institutions. The project aims to analyse Iron Age combustion structures in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula, the South of France, and the Balearic Islands (See Figure 1). The main aim is to obtain data about the functioning and efficiency of these structures during a range of domestic activities.