Several archaeologists at Bournemouth University work with experimental archaeology.
Dr Derek Pitman is an archaeologist who studies production and resource use. His research involves a combination of field archaeology, laboratory analysis and experimental reconstruction.
He runs Bournemouth University’s field school which includes a five-week experimental workshop alongside the training excavation. He also coordinates a partnership with Hengistbury Head visitors centre called “Performing the Past: participant based experimental archaeology as part of research, education and practice”. The aim of this research project is to explore the value of experimental engagement within heritage as a tool for the dissemination of archaeological knowledge through research led ‘performances’. Public engagement is central to the archaeological process and this ambitious project seeks to explore the potential of combining public outreach and active, inquiry-led research.
Dr Martin Smith is a Biological Anthropologist with particular interests in prehistoric populations, traumatic injuries to the skeleton and postmortem changes in human remains. Martin has led a variety of experimental projects relating to these areas including investigation of the signatures of various forms of violence related injury to bone, experimental cremations and taphonomic experiments involving burial or surface deposition of animal proxies.
Dr Emma Jenkins too is working with experimental archaeology. She is an Environmental Archaeologist whose research interests are focused on the Neolithic of southwest Asia. She is particularly interested in why and how people made the switch from being mobile hunter-gatherers to settled farmers.
