Experimental Archaeology

Universidade de São Paulo (BR)

Member of EXARC
No

The University of São Paulo (USP) (founded in 1827) is the biggest university in Brazil and the most prestigious in Latin America. The Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies (LEEH), leaded by Mercedes Okumura (since 2018), is run by the Institute of Biosciences and the only one in Latin America dedicated to the study of Human Biocultural Evolution.

Our research focus on the biocultural evolution of past human groups, mostly through the analysis of human skeletons, faunal remains, pottery, and stone tools. Currently, experimental archaeology is part of our main research projects, including the replication of stone and bone tools produced by ancient hunter-gatherer groups in the Americas, and by Paleolithic groups from Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East. The replication of such tools aims to further understand the lithic and bone technology of the past, as well as to produce reference collections.

National Institute of Advanced Studies (IN)

Member of EXARC
No

National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) is a premier institute in India engaged in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research in natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. 

It was founded by J. R. D Tata for providing an avenue for administrators, managers and social leaders for interaction and exchange of information with notable academics in the areas of science, arts and humanities. With these objectives, the institute conducts multi-level research programmes and mentors talented doctoral students. The institution, based in Bengaluru, in the south Indian state of Karnataka, started functioning on 20 June 1988 with Dr. Raja Ramanna as its founder director.

Appalachian State University (US)

Member of EXARC
No

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. 

The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls more than 19,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.

American River College (US)

Member of EXARC
No

American River College (ARC) is a state-funded community college, part of the Los Rios Community College District, which also includes Cosumnes River College, Folsom Lake College, and Sacramento City College. ARC offer associate degrees, vocational training programs, continuing education courses, and non-credit personal enrichment programs.

American River College is a community college and not a university. Their curriculum is primarily to allow students to complete the first two years of their degree requirements and then transfer to a university (mostly the University of California or the California State University systems) to finish up. ARC teaches a basic introductory archaeology class and an ancient technologies class. Depending on who’s teaching them, these two and a couple of other classes ("Native Peoples of North America" and "Indians of California”) may allow students to do an experimental project. 

Uniwersytet Warszawski (PL)

Member of EXARC
No

The University of Warsaw established in 1816, is the largest university in Poland. It employs over 6,000 staff including over 3,100 academic educators. It provides graduate courses for 53,000 students (on top of over 9,200 postgraduate and doctoral candidates). The University offers some 37 different fields of study, 18 faculties and over 100 specializations in Humanities, technical as well as Natural Sciences. 

Institute of Archaeology

The Institute of Archaeology at University of Warsaw is the largest academic institution of its kind in Poland and one of the largest in the world. It is divided into 17 Departments and 7 Laboratories. The Institute hires c. 100 staff, including researchers, lecturers, technicians and administrators. We teach about almost every branch of modern archaeology and related sciences to over 1500 students from different areas of study.

Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (DE)

Member of EXARC
No

The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen is a public research university founded in 1477. The University of Tübingen is especially known as a centre for the study of medicine, law, archaeology, ancient cultures, philosophy, theology and religious studies

Faculty

The Faculty of Science of the University of Tubingen conducts research applying an interdisciplinary approach to current challenges of societal significance. The University offers a variety of majors and fields of study, combining traditional disciplines with modern and ambitious research fields. This strength in research also benefits the roughly 8.900 students of our Faculty. In more than 70 study programs they study the latest research results during the course of their studies.

Università di Trento (IT)

Member of EXARC
No

In 2018, the Italian Ministry for Education and University awarded the Department of Humanities of the University of Trento as one of the few excellence centres in Italy in the domain of the scientific research area 10 (Antiquities, Philological-literary and Historical-artistic sciences). Received grants allowed to give life to the CeASHum - Center of Advanced Studies in the Humanities which is structured in a PhD School of Studies and five Research Laboratories.

The LaBAAF - “Bagolini” Laboratory: Archaeology, Archaeometry, Photography is one of these five CeASHum laboratories; the mission is to promote advanced prehistoric, classical, and medieval archaeological research. Its special interests are oriented to develop studies in methodological aspects, land use and resources management, and formation processes.

Università di Ferrara (IT)

Member of EXARC
No

Experimental activity represents one of the most relevant research tools involved when reconstructing technical traditions. As a research group working on hunter-gatherers societies at the University of Ferrara, our experimental activity is mostly focused on the technical aspects related to stone and colouring materials (goethite and hematite) exploitation in the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. 

Regarding lithic technology our interest concerns the reconstruction of chaîne opératoires, from raw material selection to manufacturing techniques (i.e. both retouch and knapping techniques) and methods and from use to discard patterns. On the other hand, ochre manipulation is analysed through experimental sessions with the objective to test processing techniques and identifying gestures and conceptual schemes applied by human groups during the mechanical and chemical treatments of such minerals. 

Grinnell College (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, founded in 1846. Grinnell is known for its rigorous academics, innovative pedagogy, and commitment to social justice. The student body is approximately 1500 undergraduates.

Department of Anthropology
Grinnell College has a strong anthropology department for a small college, with faculty representing the traditional four fields of American anthropology and offering courses in socio-cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistics and biological anthropology.
Grinnell’s anthropology major prepares students for graduate school as well as careers domestically and internationally in such fields as museology, regional planning, journalism, business, social services, and more. 

Nicolaus Copernicus University (PL)

Member of EXARC
No

The Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń is one of the oldest research centres in Poland dealing with experimental archaeology. The first studies of this type realised by our researchers were published in the 1970s.

Since then, experimental archaeology took an important place in different types of scientific projects carried out at our Institute, associated with, for example, medieval metallurgy or textiles. However, we place a special emphasis on the use of the experimental methods in research on prehistory, particularly, the Stone Ages. Most of the work realised of this type is aimed at the creation of experimental tools that we use as a comparative material during traceological analysis of the prehistoric artefacts.