Newest Era

Annual Proceedings of the EXAR Tagung
***Bilanz 2011 once again supplies an exciting, diverse and interesting view into the world of experimental archaeology. Published by EXAR in cooperation with the Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen, Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2011, 270 pp, ISBN 978-3-89995-794-5

How do we know something is real? We say something exists when it is tangible and we can touch it; it is factual when we can compare it to other known variables, and historic when it fulfils our expectation of the past. There are objects and activities that blur these categories and cause people to accept alternative histories...

Both in Europe and in the US there is a multitude of archaeological sites which are shown to the general public either partially or completely rebuilt. This pattern, which is standard practice in many countries, is sternly contested and rejected in others, giving rise to a 200 year old international debate...

REARC Conferences
***The third annual Reconstructive & Experimental Archaeology (Re-Arc) Conference was hosted by the Schiele Museum of Natural History at Gastonia North Carolina, USA, 19-21 October 2012. Although the cost of the conference itself was minimal ($35 pre-registered, $20 for students) the large travel distances within North America always...

As a long-standing member of IMTAL (International Museums Theatre Alliance – www.imtal-europe.org) I have always enjoyed their conferences. The workshops and participatory events are held in fantastic venues with theatrics to entertain and inform. However, this conference was...

This interview with Dr. Errett Callahan began in the fall of 2010 during an 8-hour car ride from his home, Cliffside, in Lynchburg, Virginia to Gastonia, North Carolina where we both attended the first annual Reconstructive and Experimental Archaeology Conference (REARC)...

In many ways, authenticity is everybody’s darling: the historian searches for authentic, historic texts in order to write down history objectively; the readers, naturally, appreciate an authentic description of the past; and museum visitors want to see authentic originals, not replicas...

By mid-2012, the Learning Partnership Didarchtik had come to an end with a last workshop at Butser Ancient Farm in the UK. Many subjects we had touched on over the previous two years were back on the table...

This article is based on personal experiences and observations conducted through many years as a volunteer at the Middle Age Centre in Denmark and later as a student at the Open Air Museum, Sorgenfri, Denmark. Observations and remarks made are solely personal and the article reflects thoughts I have had throughout the years...

On 27 March 2010, the board of the Working Group on Experimental Archaeology in Switzerland (AEAS-GAES) invited a panel of experts to hold a public debate in Olten on whether the incentives that had existed at the time still played their part, how they were now constituted and what the future perspectives were...