Book Reviews

I am honoured to write a review of the book Eksperimentinė archeologija, Lietuvos materialaus paveldo rekonstrukcija, I tomas or Experimental archaeology, Reconstruction of Material Heritage of Lithuania, volume I; compiled by Daiva Luchtanienė. I have to admit that I know very little about Lithuania and their experimental archaeology and I was looking forward to learning more...

Experimental Archaeology: Reconstruction of Material Heritage of Lithuania, Volume II, is an interesting journey back into the past by means of practical experimentations. An insightful volume that contains a collection of well-written and well-crafted essays exploring different facets of ancient life in Lithuania...

The book gives a short historical overview of major events in the chosen area, followed by an informative chapter on colours, a likewise very competent chapter on fabrics, and one on sewing techniques. Then the dress parts are presented, with very clear and informative modern illustrations. The focus is on ordinary dresses, not the really posh ones.

There are no sewing patterns as such, but the experienced seamstress can easily transfer the small silhouette patterns to real patterns, or one can search the bibliography in the book for relevant publications.

New or not new to experimental archaeology and microwear methodology in archaeology? Pots and Practices presents a succinct methodology to the analysis developed by archaeologists and a practicing ceramic artist, an investigation into working together on the relationship between two sites, their similarities and differences...

Are chaîne opératoire, technology, and experimental protocols and methodology keywords to your research interests? Technology and Experimentation in Archaeology provides international perspectives and excellent case studies on those very subjects...

In Craft Beer Culture and Modern Medievalism: Brewing Dissent, Noëlle Phillips takes a critical look at the people and legends of craft beer and the ways in which medievalism and masculinity have shaped the industry of craft beer brewing. Craft beer may seem to be a rather flippant choice for an analytical scholarly study, but it is a movement deeply infused with modern assumptions...

Spaces that tell stories: Recreating historical Environments is a textbook and a how-to manual for those setting up a new exhibition or living history site, or for those evaluating existing interpretation on a site. Everybody who works in museum education, exhibition and living history knows how fantastic it is when an historical environment engages a visitor in the topic. We also know how difficult it can be...

Cometh the hour, cometh the book? There was a considerable anticipatory kerfuffle on archaeological social media about the release of Bronze Age Combat: an experimental approach, and rightly so. It is much more than just an experimental archaeology book with rather gorgeous photographs of swords, spears and shields (although it is that too!). It is a rare publication which manages to...

Interpreting the Environment at Museums and Historic Sites is a textbook and a call to action. In the midst of the Anthropocene, Debra A. Reid and David D. Vail argue, museums and conservation areas should attend to their environmental assets, tell environmental stories, and take an activist role in encouraging better stewardship.

What defines re-enactment and living history?

As I believe that a clarification of terms and the contextualisation of matters is a good starting point for any investigation, this question marks the beginning of my guide (Aune Nilsen 2015:6-7). Talking to organisers, museum workers and re-enactors in Scandinavia, I have noted that they all have different answers to this question.

National interest in re-production of history started when the Ethnological Commission of Westphalia called together with Freilichtmuseum Cloppenburg, one of the oldest German open-air museums, a conference on the topic of “Living history in the Museum” in 2007 in Cloppenburg, Niedersachsen. Subsequent conferences made it clear that - apart from predictable doubts about the reliability and quality of the reconstructions of historical life-worlds and events - there was a significant dissonance regarding terminologies.

Everyone knows that the Ancient Greeks wore bronze armour. Examples have been excavated, mentioned in the literature and depicted on vases, statues et cetera. But there is also mention of something they called 'linothorax': literally, 'linen chest', meaning linen armour for the chest...

There are few issues in lithic studies that have captured the imagination and attention of researchers as much as laminar (blade) technologies (see Bar-Yosef & Kuhn 2009). This has resulted in a rich and detailed body of academic work partly reflected in Pierre M. Desrosiers’ (Ed.) The Emergence of Pressure Blade Making: From Origin to Modern Experimentation...

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...

What role does experimental archaeology have in the wider discourse? According to the papers in this book, all of which were presented at the Theoretical Archaeological Group (TAG) conference in Southampton in 2008, a large one...

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...

The top popular magazine in Germany on archaeology is called Archäologie in Deutschland, simply referred to as ‘AiD’. It has been published every two months since 1984 and is 84 pages in length. The publisher is Theiss from Stuttgart. They publish on archaeology, history and ethnography and carry about 650 titles...

Experimental Archaeology: 1. Early Bronze Age Cremation Pyres. 2. Iron Age Grain Storage - the first thing that strikes the reader is that the book’s preface is missing leaving little understanding of the overall purpose of the book beyond the publication of two very different but significant experiments...

Water driven saws for cutting stone were thought of as being modern inventions, until recently. At present we have several finds that prove such machines existed in the Classic Era...

At the European Association of Archaeologists' meeting in Malta, September 2008, a session was held on the topic of Archaeology as Time Travel, dedicated to exploring the popular phenomenon of time travel to past times, including a variety of aspects related to materiality/virtuality, the market of time travel experiences, design issues and how time travel should be evaluated as an experience...

Designing Experimental Research in Archaeology is a recently published guide to planning and conducting archaeological experiments. Edited by Jeffrey R. Ferguson, a research assistant professor at the archaeometry laboratory at the University of Colorado, the book aims to guide researchers through methodology and experiment design...

There must be hundreds of wooden ship replicas across the world, not only the ‘Viking ships’ in Scandinavia, but – as the book Sailing into the past shows, there are many medieval and more recent ones...

It may appear odd or redundant to reprint a book that was published in 1979. The subject will have moved on, more will have been discovered, new techniques will have been developed. But this is partly the point: Experimental Archaeology by John Coles is a foundation text for the subject as a whole...