Mesolithic

In the last quarter of the 1900s, John Coles (1979) and Peter Reynolds (1999) introduced the subject of experimental archaeology, which has gained significant momentumin the past few years. The discipline has become essential for reconstructing past technologies, in addition to supporting archaeological theory.

These experiments cover the making and testing of several possible glue types that might have been used in the hunter and gatherer period of the European Stone Age. Glue types produced in these experiments are: 1. Birch bark tar and pitch, 2. Pine wood tar and pitch, 3. Pine resin / wax glue, 4. Pine resin / wax / charcoal glue, 5. Hide glue and 6. Blue Bell glue...

OpenArch Dialogue with Skills Issue
***Two new huts in the Stone Age Park Dithmarschen in Albersdorf (Germany) were built in spring 2014 by the Experimental Archaeologist and Educator Werner Pfeifer with the support of some friends and with financial support from the Stone Age Park Dihmarschen and the EU co-financed project OpenArch.

OpenArch Special Digest 2015 Issue 2
***Over the years my personal research interests have focussed on the less tangible elements of the past, such as gender issues, perishable material culture, and the sensory worlds of the past, but all of these have been underpinned by a longstanding appreciation of the role experimental archaeology can play as...

OpenArch Special Digest 2015 Issue 2
***During summer 2014, just over 30 students from Archaeological Studies at the University of Hamburg, as well as four children, participated in a practical week of experimental archaeology at the Steinzeitdorf Albersdorf. In preparation for this week, the students attended a seminar at the University of Hamburg...

From the 27 July to the 6 September 2015 the Stone Age Park Dithmarschen (Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf, AÖZA) organised a Mesolithic living history experiment in its newly constructed ‘Mesolithic Settlement’ finished last year. The experiment sought to investigate, through careful reconstruction, how people may have carried out their daily lives in the Mesolithic period...

I meet Harm Paulsen (70), the best known and longest working experimental archaeologist in Germany, in his apartment in Schleswig. Although the rooms aren't small, it is only possible to move around by holding in your belly and not breathing, as everywhere, standing, hanging or lying around, is evidence of Harm's professional and private life – a clear line between the two is not visible...

Annual Proceedings of the EXAR Tagung
***Volume number 13 of the periodical Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa. Bilanz contains 215 pages with 18 different articles on a wide variety of subjects. The contributions are presented in four sections: Experiment and Test, Reconstruction Archaeology, Theory and Emanation’, and Short reports...