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Viking Age

Discussion: Food - Reconstruction and the Public

Author(s)
Thit Birk Petersen 1 ✉,
Aidan O’Sullivan 2,
John Majerle 3,
Gary Ball 4,
Edwin Deady 5,
Torsten Neuer 6,
Miika Vanhapiha 7,
Darell Markewitz 8,
Olaf Trollheimsfjord 9,
Vicky Shearman 10,
Del Elson 11,
Daniel Serra 12
Publication Date
For a BBC program in 1954, Sir Mortimer Wheeler tasted a reconstruction of the Tollund Man’s last supper, which turned out to be a tasteless mush. This led him to announce: "I believe that the poor chap of Tollund committed suicide because he could stand his...

Where Were the Viking Brew Houses?

Author(s)
Graham Dineley 1,
Merryn Dineley 1 ✉
Publication Date
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***The authors have over 15 years' experience in experimenting with recreating ancient and traditional techniques of making ale from malted grain. Graham is a craft brewer, with 30 years' experience making beer from the grain. Merryn is an archaeologist, with an interest in malting and brewing technologies...

Aspects on Realizing House Reconstructions: a Scandinavian Perspective

Author(s)
Ulf Näsman 1 ✉
Publication Date

1987 ESF Proceedings
The 1980s was the beginning of a boom in the construction of archaeologically inspired buildings inside and outside archaeological open-air museums.
***Experiments are an integrated part of archaeological research, a tool used to analyse and understand archaeological phenomena. It is a method as legitimate and as problematic as so many others. The reconstruction of wooden buildings is a main branch of experimental archaeology.

Testing a Reconstruction: A Frosty Week in a Viking Age House

Author(s)
Kristiina Paavel 1 ✉,
Viire Pajuste 1,
R. Rootslane 1
Publication Date
In the summers of 2010 and 2011, an archaeologically inspired Viking Age horizontal log house with a two-layer split plank roof, clay floor and a dry-stone stove without a chimney was built in Rõuge, Estonia. In the winter of 2012 (30 January 2012 - 05 February 2012) a one-week living-experiment was organised to test the building...

Fire and Bone: An Experimental Study of Cremation

Author(s)
Christophe Snoeck 1 ✉,
R. J. Schulting 1
Publication Date
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***Many bone fragments have been burned in controlled laboratory conditions but few have been burned on outdoor pyres. In order to study and understand cremated bone, it is crucial to conduct experiments in real environmental conditions. In this study several cremations were carried out outdoors...

A Playground Amongst Museums - The Bauspielplatz: from an Open-air Youth Centre to a History Experience Site - an Unusual Development

Author(s)
Frank Kock 1 ✉
Publication Date
Being a Bauspielplatz [adventure playground] usually means that children have a place to meet, play, be creative, get in contact with animals and nature and even do ‘dangerous’ things - with some pedagogical guidance. It is part of local social work, similar to a youth centre...

Book Review: The Boyne Currach: from Beneath the Shadows of Newgrange By Claidhbh Ó Gibne

Author(s)
Tom Jackson 1 ✉
Publication Date

Claidhbh Ó Gibne has devoted himself to building traditional currachs and researching their history. His new volume, The Boyne Currach: From beneath the shadows of Newgrange, puts the currach in the context of the history of...

Book Review: Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa, Bilanz 2011

Author(s)
Sina Lorbeer-Klausnitz 1 ✉
Publication Date
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

Conference Review: 7th Experimental Archaeology Conference, Cardiff 2013

Author(s)
Heather Hopkins 1 ✉
Publication Date
EAC Conferences
***The 7th Experimental Archaeology Conference was held on 12-13th January 2013. This annual event, first held in 2006. This year it was hosted jointly by the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University and St Fagan’s Open-Air Museum. Seventy-five delegates originally booked to attend, but one hundred actually...