Bronze Age
Leave your Stamp: Reconstruction of the Scarab Production Chain
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Scarabs are beetle-shaped seals originating in Egypt during the third millennium BC. They were first imported into the southern Levant during the early second millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age I), leading to a flourishing of local production in the following centuries...
Scored Basins from Late Minoan Crete: an Experimental Interpretation from Construction to Functionality
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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...
An Experimental Approach to Assessing the Tempering and Firing of Local Pottery Production in Nubia during the New Kingdom Period
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Recently, the development of an independent strand of study, known as the ‘archaeology of dung,’ has resulted in numerous cross-geographical publications confirming the use of animal dung in archaeological deposits as the main fuel source and several other purposes. Most of these studies focus on the analysis of the microscopic evidence attributable to dung...
Different Types of Needles for Specific Uses? Experimental Reproductions of some Finds from Aradetis Orgora, Georgia
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This research aimed to evaluate some new hypotheses about the production and use of a class of pointed tools from the Bronze Age layers of Aradetis Orgora (Georgia), which have been traditionally considered as pins. Its main goal was to provide an alternative interpretation of their function, namely as tools used in basketry...
Hoes or Adzes? Experimental Reproduction and Uses of Deer Antler Tools from the Bronze Age Terramara of Pragatto (Italy)
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#EAC12 World Tour 2021
***This research aimed to evaluate the hypotheses related to the production and possible uses of a class of deer antler tools from the Bronze Age Terramara of Pragatto (Italy). These bevel-ended instruments are traditionally considered handled hoes, related to agricultural purposes such as tillage...
***This research aimed to evaluate the hypotheses related to the production and possible uses of a class of deer antler tools from the Bronze Age Terramara of Pragatto (Italy). These bevel-ended instruments are traditionally considered handled hoes, related to agricultural purposes such as tillage...
More Testing of Mesoamerican Lunate Artifacts as Possible Loom Weights, that also Functioned as Twining Tools
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In previous replication studies and experiments, a lunate jade artifact from the Pre-Classic/Formative period (1500 BC-AD 250) of Mesoamerica was analysed, researched, and tested for its similarities to the crescent weight, a specialized type of loom weight found in ancient Central and Southern Europe. These analyses successfully established that...
Identifying Ceramic Shaping Techniques: Experimental Results Using the Inclusion and Void Orientation Method
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This contribution presents the results of experiments using a simple but effective inclusion and void orientation method for identifying shaping techniques on cut and scanned vessels and sherds. Not only does it provide an additional line of complementary evidence for differentiating ceramic chaînes opératoires, but we argue that it offers observations not accessible by other imaging methods and scales of analysis...
Fresco Mixtures with Dried Lime Plaster: Cameron’s Experiments Revisited
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Introduction
During the Bronze Age, the craftspeople of the eastern Mediterranean practiced a form of reuse or recycling: fragments of mortar were used as aggregates in lime mixtures intended for walls or floors (Shaw, 1973, p.222; Brysbaert, 2003, pp.168-173, pp.175-176; Jones, 2005, p.220; Brysbaert, 2008, p.118). Such a mixture was found in a house in the Akrotiri settlement of Santorini, in a part of the wall that was intended to be painted (Jones, 2005, p.220).
Archaeological Experiment on Reconstruction of the “Compound” Bow of the Sintashta Bronze Age Culture from the Stepnoe Cemetery
Publication Date
#EAC12 World Tour 2021
***This article presents data from an international experimental study on the reconstruction of the “compound” bow of Sintashta culture of bronze age South Ural, Russia. The project is carried out by a collective of researchers from Greece and Russia as part of the grant program of EXARC - “Twinning program”...
***This article presents data from an international experimental study on the reconstruction of the “compound” bow of Sintashta culture of bronze age South Ural, Russia. The project is carried out by a collective of researchers from Greece and Russia as part of the grant program of EXARC - “Twinning program”...
Pyrgos Mavroraki Smelting and Melting Experiments in a Metallurgical Workshop of the Second Millennium BC
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Interpreting the cultural influences of Cyprus in antiquity has posed an issue, depending on one’s point of view or the different conclusions reached. Until the 1970s, in large part due to the extensive excavations along the northern coast of Cyprus, it seemed reasonable to recognise a plethora of Aegean traits in the island culture. Every element of the Cypriot Bronze Age was analysed and interpreted in...