Experimental Archaeology

Casting a Copper Age Axe Using a Replica of the Marl Mould Found in Baffoni Cave (AN)

Author(s)
Mauro Fiorentini 1
Publication Date
The Baffoni Cave is a cavern that lies in the Genga territory, in the province of Ancona, Italy. It is part of a complex of caves, the most famous of which are the Frasassi Caves. The whole territory is rich in archaeological features, with the most ancient specimen found within the Genga territory being a flint biface dating to the Lower Palaeolithic...

Drawing Wire

Author(s)
Henriette Lyngstrøm 1
Publication Date
Very few experiments have been conducted on drawing wires of iron made from bog ore. One of them, however, was carried out at the forge at Lejre Land of Legends in Denmark. The iron used for the experiments was obtained from three different sites in Denmark where well-documented experiments in the extraction of bog iron ore took place...

Experimenting with the Ancient Greek Pottery Production Process from Clay Selection to Firing in a (Re)constructed Updraft Kiln

Author(s)
Francesca Tomei 1 ✉,
Juan Ignacio Jimenez Rivero 2
Publication Date
This article presents an experimental archaeology project that aimed to reproduce the Hellenistic Greek pottery production process. The project's main research questions were focused on understanding how locally available raw materials and climatic conditions influenced the production process and how the process created social networks with the local community...

An Experimental Approach to Tannur Ovens and Bread Making in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula during the Iron Age

Author(s)
Carmen Ramírez Cañas 1 ✉,
Penélope I. Martínez de los Reyes 1,
Antonio M. Sáez Romero 1
Publication Date
Culinary culture has played an essential role in the configuration and interaction of human societies throughout history, shaping both individual and collective identities. Like the modern Mediterranean diet, Phoenician-Punic subsistence relied on cereals, often in the form of...

The Production of Roman Metal Screw Threads

Author(s)
David Sim 1 ✉,
Chris Legg 2
Publication Date
The production of Roman screws and screw threads is a topic that is largely absent in the archaeological literature. During the Roman period, small metal screw threads were used both as fastenings and to impart motion. This paper will show that it is possible to produce small metal screw threads using very simple technology that was well within the skill set of any competent metal worker...

Peat Burns: The Methods and Implications of Peat Charcoaling

Author(s)
Paul M. Jack 1
Publication Date
The Northern Isles of Scotland offer a fascinating case study for understanding past economies and resource management due to the comparative lack of trees found elsewhere in the British Isles. Archaeological evidence proves that this environment did not prevent the development of industrial pursuits in this region during the Iron Age and local accounts dating to ...

Hard Fun: Further Discussions on an Undergraduate Project to (Re)Construct and Fire a Medieval Tile Kiln

Author(s)
Gaynor Wood 1
Publication Date
This experiment, undertaken over a 12-month period in 2015 at Norton Priory Museum in Cheshire, formed part of a pedagogic case study and an experimental archaeology project. Here eight Archaeology and 12 Ceramics students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) researched, built, and fired a tile kiln using evidence from previous experimental archaeology projects on the site and other firing projects...

Leave your Stamp: Reconstruction of the Scarab Production Chain

Author(s)
Natasha Solodenko-Vernovsky 1 ✉,
Noa Ranzer 2,3,
Alex Kuklin 3,
Inbar Meyerson 3,
Evgeny Gasin 4,
Ido Koch 3
Publication Date
Scarabs are beetle-shaped seals originating in Egypt during the third millennium BC. They were first imported into the southern Levant during the early second millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age I), leading to a flourishing of local production in the following centuries. From this point until the late first millennium BC, scarabs were the most common...

An Experimental Approach to Ancient Egyptian Metalworking: The Mysteries of the Sesheshet

Author(s)
Chelsea Kaufman 1 ✉,
Benjamin Doddy 2
Publication Date
Our research represents a case study in ancient metalworking to illuminate the challenges, processes, and both human and material agency behind these objects. We focus on copper alloy Hathoric loop sistra since these musical instruments are steeped in ritual and mythological connections to metalworking. Our work represents the early stages of our ongoing investigations...

Function Follows Form: Assessing the Functionality of Shells and Greenstone Shell Effigies as Formative Period Mesoamerican Textile Fabrication Tools, Part 1: Tagelus plebeius Atlantic Stout Razor Clam Shells

Author(s)
Billie J. A. Follensbee 1
Publication Date
Although the importance of textiles in Mesoamerica from the Classic period (AD 250-900) onward is well-recognised, until recently little research or exploration of earlier Mesoamerican textile production has been conducted. This paucity of scholarship is attributable predominantly to the scant preservation of perishable ancient tools and textiles...