Experimental Archaeology

Groundstone Indications from the Southern Levant for a 7th Millennium BCE Upright Mat Loom

Author(s)
Janet Levy 1
Publication Date
The southern Levant features a long-established matting tradition: soumak (weft wrapping) and also weft twined matting from the 10th millennium BC, and coiled matting from the 8th millennium BCE. The Chalcolithic period, 5th millennium BCE, attests to the introduction of plain plait, twill, sewn through techniques and also the use of the horizontal ground mat loom...

Humboldt State University (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Humboldt State University (HSU), in Northern California, is a small community-based campus, situated in the great redwoods of the Pacific North coast. The college town setting on the California North Coast, 8 miles (13 km) north of Eureka is notable for its natural beauty. The university is divided into three colleges: the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; the College of Natural Resources and Sciences; and the College of Professional Studies.

Students are provided with a holistic education in the discipline of Anthropology. As part of the curriculum in the Department of Anthropology, students can explore numerous avenues in Experimental Archaeology, including flintknapping, metal casting, basketry, cordage, textiles, and bookbinding, just to name a few.

Crafting Beyond Habitual Practices: Assessing the Production of a House Urn from Iron Age Central Italy

Author(s)
Caroline Jeffra 1
Publication Date
A house-shaped urn dating to the Early Iron Age from Central Italy was technologically assessed in order to establish the forming techniques necessary to produce it. This hypothesized forming sequence was then tested through the production of two experimental urns. It was found that there is a meaningful relationship between the clay texture choices, the forming techniques, and the overall morphology of the finished object...

Hunting for Use-Wear

Author(s)
Matilda Siebrecht 1 ✉,
Diederik Pomstra 2
Publication Date

Harpoons are an essential part of the hunting toolkit amongst Inuit and have been integral to the material culture assemblage of Arctic groups for thousands of years. The pre-Inuit population known as the Dorset cultures (app. 800 BC–1300 AD) - also sometimes referred to as Tuniit - were highly dependent on a maritime subsistence with harpoon heads as one of the dominant artefact categories at Dorset sites...

Testing Mesoamerican Lunate Artifacts as Possible Crescent Loom Weights

Author(s)
Billie J. A. Follensbee 1
Publication Date
While the importance of textiles in Mesoamerica from the Classic period (AD 250-900) onward is well-recognized, scholars have conducted little exploration of earlier Mesoamerican textile production. This lack of scholarship may be attributed in great part to the scant preservation of perishable textiles and tools from ancient times. New sources of information have been recognized, however...

RIP John Coles, a Giant in Experimental Archaeology

Groundbreaking experimental archaeologist, one of the well-respected giants of experimental archaeology, John Coles, died suddenly on October 14, 2020. He will be remembered as the first to pull together all the strands of people working in experimental archaeology in the 1970s, with his books “experimental archaeology” and “archaeology by experiment”.

Coles, his gentle self, remained interested in how the world of experimental archaeology expanded and made progress. In 2009, he gave a long interview reflecting on experimental archaeology, published by EXARC (see link below).

Thanks, John, you have made a world of a difference.

הפורום הישראלי לארכיאולוגיה ניסויית - The Israeli Forum for Experimental Archaeology (IL)

The Israeli Forum for Experimental Archaeology was established in order to connect archaeologists, field and laboratory researchers and practitioners of ancient crafts, with an emphasis on collaboration, knowledge sharing and public engagement.

Our members come from a range of fields; academics, Living History groups, museum workers, educators, craftspeople, archaeologists and more. Thus, we aim to link persons involved with experimental archaeology in Israel and create a place to share, consult and learn, along with other experts engaged in the field. In addition, we endeavour to create experiment databases and coordinate experiments, workshops, and conferences. Our dogma is that through experimental archaeology, people from different backgrounds can advance research by sharing knowledge, experience and facilities.

Experiment with Kindling Oil Lamps

Author(s)
Aleksei Vaiman 1
Publication Date
This article deals with the daily technology of ceramic oil lamps from the period of the 1st century AD until the first half of the 7th century AD. The questions underlying in this article include the following: How long did combustion take and what was its intensity? Were wicks pulled and when? Was the oil poured into an already-burning lamp to increase the burning time, as Dr. Amar Zohar, of Bar Ilan University suggests?...

Roe Deer as Raw Material for Middle Mesolithic Fishhooks? An Experimental Approach to the Manufacture of Small Bone Fishhooks

Author(s)
Anja Mansrud 1 ✉,
Morten Kutschera 2
Publication Date
Bone fishhooks have occasionally been retrieved from bone assemblages at coastal sites dating to the Middle Mesolithic phase (8300-6300 cal. BC) in Southern Norway and Western Sweden. Several studies of fishhooks from these sites have been undertaken in recent years. Fishhooks can be manufactured from different osseous materials, including antler, ribs and shafts of different long bones...

Experimental Research on the Neanderthal Musical Instrument from Divje Babe I Cave (Slovenia)

Author(s)
Matija Turk 1 ✉,
Giuliano Bastiani 2
Publication Date
11th EAC Trento 2019
***The supposition that an unusually perforated femur of a juvenile cave bear found at the Divje babe I Palaeolithic cave site in Slovenia could be a musical instrument led to heated debates. According to its archaeological context and chronostratigraphic position, if made by humans, it could only be attributed to Neanderthals...