Viking Age
Event Review: Dark Ages Recreation Company at L’Anse aux Meadows, NHSC 2017
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Lying at the extreme northern tip of Newfoundland, L'Anse aux Meadows represents the only widely accepted Viking-Era presence in North America. Archaeological remains of seven buildings were found at the site, along with a few minor artefacts including a ring-headed pin, glass bead, and drop-spindle whorl. Evidence of on-site work was also found in the form of iron slag, discarded ship rivets, and axe-hewn wood chips. Four of the seven buildings were reconstructed by Parks Canada. Since 1997, these have been staffed by costumed interpreters who blend first- and third
Book Review: Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa, Jahrbuch 2016
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Annual Proceedings of the EXAR Tagung
***The periodical "Experimentelle Archäologie" is issued by Gunter Schöbel and the "Europäische Vereinigung zur Förderung der experimentellen Archäologie", together with Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen from Germany. Issue no. 15 includes 223 pages of text, with numerous colour photographs...
***The periodical "Experimentelle Archäologie" is issued by Gunter Schöbel and the "Europäische Vereinigung zur Förderung der experimentellen Archäologie", together with Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen from Germany. Issue no. 15 includes 223 pages of text, with numerous colour photographs...
Sherd Shatter Patterns Experiment
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In field archaeology, the importance of non-diagnostic sherds is often overlooked. This archaeological experiment suggests that archaeologists should take into greater consideration, contexts where sherds are found grouped together in close proximity. The authors tested a series of experimental drops of modern pots...
Event Review: EXARC visits Moscow
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Between the 1st to the 12th of June 2017, a huge festival called "Times and Epochs" (Времена и эпохи - Cобрание) was organized in Moscow. This was the occassion to gather participants not only from Russia, but also from many other countries, and demonstrate the best of reenactment to festival visitors...
“Days of Living Archaeology” at the Prehistoric Archaeopark Vsestary, Czech Republic
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Until recently, the presentation of archaeology in the Czech Republic was solely connected to classic museum exhibitions. Unfortunately, not all museums have archaeological exhibitions. For example, the National Museum in Prague currently does not have any, not even temporary, archaeological exhibition due to the reconstruction of the historical building...
Conference Review: EAA Vilnius – about Archaeological Tourism, Visualisation, Experiment and Reconstruction
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The European Association of Archaeologists held its annual conference of 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. About 1,500 participants attended a programme, with a similar number of papers, in over 100 sessions. About a dozen EXARC members attended; what follows here is a review of three sessions...
Cooking in Baskets Using Hot Rocks
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Baskets are among the most ancient of human artefacts. Everyone is familiar with their most common functions as containers for transport and storage. When told that baskets have also served as cooking vessels, most people will be unable to conceive of how this is possible, yet this was a primary function of baskets for many cultures of the past, and some until the present...
Conference Review: European Textile Forum 2015
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The European Textile Forum (Textilforum) was held between the 2nd and 9th November 2015, at the Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology (LEA) in Mayen, Germany. LEA kindly hosted the European Textile Forum as part of their inaugural event in 2012 and since then the Director Michael Herdick has invited the conference to return annually...
Playing with the Past? Or Saving Our Future?
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As the manager of the Ancient Technology Centre (ATC) in Dorset, England, like many of you, I consider regularly what it is that we actually do. What services do we provide? How are we regarded by the public, by the education sector, by the children we teach, and by those who pay to come through our doors.
Book Review: Recent Publications: Experimental Archaeology in the November 2015 Issue of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal (Volume 25, Issue 4)
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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.