Canada
Book Review: Sailing into the Past: Learning from Replica Ships by Jenny Bennett (ed)
There must be hundreds of wooden ship replicas across the world, not only the ‘Viking ships’ in Scandinavia, but – as the book Sailing into the past shows, there are many medieval and more recent ones...
50th Anniversary of L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada
The summer of 2010 saw the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Viking Era site at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland Canada. To celebrate this milestone Parks Canada arranged a number of special events, including an August visit from the Dark Ages Re-creation Company (DARC)...
"But if you don't get any IRON..." Towards an Effective Method for Small Iron Smelting Furnaces
Building and operating a small bloomery iron furnace is certainly a wonderful public demonstration for any museum or living history site. It is however a complex technical process, with many individual factors combining for success. Over the last decade in North America, small teams of blacksmiths have developed predictable working methods through trial and much error. This direct practical experience can provide some insights into questions that even the best researched theories may not be able to solve.
Neil Peterson
I have been involved with re-enactment/interpretation for over 25 years, and heavily involved with experimental work specifically in the areas of Viking Era Iron Smelting, and Bead Production for over a decade.