Mixed Matters

Book Review: Interpreting the Environment at Museums and Historic Sites by Reid and Vali

Author(s)
V. M. Roberts 1
Publication Date

Interpreting the Environment at Museums and Historic Sites is a textbook and a call to action. In the midst of the Anthropocene, Debra A. Reid and David D. Vail argue, museums and conservation areas should attend to their environmental assets, tell environmental stories, and take an activist role in encouraging better stewardship.

Book Review: Architectures of Fire: Processes, Space and Agency in Pyrotechnologies edited by Dragos Gheoghiu

Author(s)
Gregg Griffin 1
Publication Date
This book is a collection of six papers from the 2015 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists session with the same title, co-organised by Dragoş Gheoghiu and Derek Pitman. The contributors to this work are a global team of thirteen archaeology researchers and experimental archaeologists who have studied different aspects of the use of fire and its influence on...

Book Review: An Archaeology of Skill: Metalworking Skill and Material Specialization in Early Bronze Age Central Europe by Maikel H.G. Kuijpers

Author(s)
E. Giovanna Fregni 1
Publication Date
Craft is a difficult thing to define. The skills required to make objects is ephemeral. We know it when we see the results of craftsmanship, but studies about understanding the development and practice of the skills of craftsmanship are rare. Furthermore, the application of these studies to archaeology are almost non-existent. Statements about craft in archaeological literature are made in ...

Conference Review: Exploring Heritage, Museums Mediating Archaeology

Author(s)
Roeland Paardekooper 1
Publication Date
Our colleagues in Xanten invited us for a conference on the use of digital media in museums. Eleven speakers from Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Austria captivated an audience of about 75 participants. Many of the presented ideas were delivered by larger museums, some of them in the phase of execution...

Art in the Serra: Project of Heritage Experiences in the Territory of the Serra Da Capivara National Park (BR)

Author(s)
Jorlan da Silva Oliveira 1
Publication Date
In 2013 a team of researchers in collaboration with the community in the municipality of Coronel José Dias, around Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí-Brazil, created the Olho D 'Água Institute and since then has been developing research and didactic experiments with the communities. The project entitled Arte na Serra aims to engage communities...

Event Review: NEMO Learning Exchange in Budapest (HU)

Author(s)
Pascale Barnes 1
Publication Date
The purpose of this Learning Exchange was to discover more about the Hungarian museum landscape, with examples of successful programmes engaging in social responsibility in Hungary. The host and organiser Zsolt Sari, Deputy Director General of the Hungarian Open Air Museum (Skanzen), was joined by colleagues from the Ludwig Museum, the Petofi Literary Museum, and the Herman Otto Museum...

Event Review: “I Experiment so I Participate” Italian Experimental Archaeology Festival: Experience in Didactics and Scientific Dissemination

Author(s)
Massimo Massussi 1 ✉,
Sonia Tucci 1,
A. Sciancalepore 1,
R. Laurito 1
Publication Date
11th EAC Trento 2019
***Participation in archaeology is the basic “inclusive process” of a human community, which allows it to identify its cultural values. Experimental archaeology with its rediscovery of gestures and techniques allows re-appropriation, a sense of belonging and ...

Conference Review: Biannual Conference of the Association of European Open Air Museums (AEOM), Poland, August 2019

Author(s)
Peter Inker 1
Publication Date
This year’s Association of European Open Air Museums (AEOM) Biannual Conference 2019 took place at multiple sites in Poland, over four days in late August. Its two key themes were ‘How Open Air Museums represent different cultural identities’, and ‘Representing the past - technical solutions for reconstruction and archaeological interpretation’. I was invited to participate in order to...

Book Review: Pfeil und Bogen in der Römischen Kaiserzeit, by Holger Riesch

Author(s)
Antje Wilton 1
Publication Date
This book closes a gap both in the documentation of the history of the Roman army as well as the history of archery in that it provides a very comprehensive overview on the use of bow and arrow in the Roman Empire. It collects and systematically discusses a wealth of information on a range of topics related to Roman archery in the imperial period and extends that discussion to previous and following periods...