Featured in the EXARC Journal

Experimental Archaeology

The Mechanics of Splitting Wood and the Design of Neolithic Woodworking Tools

Author(s)
Roland Ennos 1 ✉,
J. A. Ventura Oliveira 1
Publication Date
Because of the anisotropy of wood, trunks and branches can be vulnerable to splitting along the grain, especially radially. This fact was widely exploited in pre-industrial times, when wood was mostly cut and shaped by splitting it along the grain while still green, rather than by sawing...

Now we’re Cooking with Gas! How Experimental Archaeology Challenges Modern Assumptions about Metal Recycling

Author(s)
E. Giovanna Fregni 1
Publication Date
It is accepted knowledge that when re-melting alloys, some of the metal with a lower melting temperature is lost through oxidation, and more metal must be added in order to maintain the desired alloy proportions. In order to understand the changes in alloy content when recycling using Bronze Age technology, experiments were undertaken by the author and others...