Late Middle Ages
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...
Presenting Medieval Gambling and Pub Life
There are many legendary games in the Middle Ages with professed losses of clothes, horses and, what is more, whole estates, and even halves of kingdoms. But was money really the most important part of gambling?...
Book Review: Experimental Archaeology by John Coles
It may appear odd or redundant to reprint a book that was published in 1979. The subject will have moved on, more will have been discovered, new techniques will have been developed. But this is partly the point: Experimental Archaeology by John Coles is a foundation text for the subject as a whole...
Conference Overview 2010/2011
A wide range of conferences on experimental archaeology and open air museums took place in 2010 and 2011, both in Europe and the Americas. This brief summary is based on the conference reviews from our contributors which can all be accessed freely on EXARC JOURNAL website from early 2012 on...
Grundtvig, Life Long Learning in Archaeological Open-Air Museums
In November 2009, the idea for launching a network on adult education in EXARC was picked up. The first step was a preparation meeting in Oerlinghausen, Germany where we met with about 20 EXARC members from almost all corners of Europe. By mid 2010, 15 organisations, including EXARC itself joined in two so called Grundtvig Learning Partnerships, funded by the European Union...
Obituary: Janis Apals (17 September 1930 - 21 February 2011)
With Jānis Apals, who died at the age of 80 after a short illness, the international world of experimental archaeology looses a valued friend and colleague. EXARC remembers Jānis Apals as an energetic archaeologist, standing strong for...
Contribution to the Medieval Building Technology Based on the Reconstruction of a Rounded Church
This article presents the experimental archaeological project to build a medieval rotunda reconstruction using rough stone building technology. Here, a medieval rotunda reconstruction is presented by contemporary building technology...
"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.