Experimental Archaeology

An Energy Saving House from 3400 Years Ago

Author(s)
Irene Staeves 1
Publication Date
The fact that people of the Bronze Age built houses with very good insulation was already presented by Staeves (2010) based on the results of an archaeological excavation in 2003 where an archaeological team of the Main-Kinzig district examined remnants of a Middle Bronze Age settlement. Prior to this, it was assumed that...

Getting Hammered: The Use of Experimental Archaeology to Interpret Wear on Late Bronze Age Hammers and Modern replicas

Author(s)
E. Giovanna Fregni 1
Publication Date
Metalsmithing tools such as hammers are rarely recognised for their significance in understanding prehistoric metalworking technology. Their development and specialisation signal new metalworking techniques and a wider array of the types of metal objects being made. Our knowledge of ancient metalworking is...

Problems and Suggested Solutions in the Replication and Operation of a Glass Furnace based on Roman Remains: an Experiment in Glass Production

Author(s)
Ernst Lauermann 1 ✉,
G. Putzgruber 2,
D. Götzinger 2
Publication Date

Part of the reorganisation of the archaeological open-air area at Asparn are plans for a remaking of the Iron Age workshop area. The construction of an Iron Age smithy and a glass production furnace are also being planned. As is widely known ‘glass can be made out of quartz sand, potash and lime’. But is it as easy as that? It is therefore legitimate to discuss here the experimental efforts involved in its production.

Experiencing Visible and Invisible Metal Casting Techniques in Bronze Age Italy

Author(s)
Monia Barbieri 1 ✉,
Claudio Cavazzuti 1,
Luca Pellegrini 2,
​Federico Scacchetti 3
Publication Date
OpenArch Dialogue with Skills Issue
***What we know about Bronze Age metalworking in Italy basically relies on finished artefacts and on stone, clay or bronze implements involved in the process of manufacturing (tuyères, crucibles, moulds, hammers, chisels, et cetera; Bianchi, 2010; Bianchi, in press).

A Gaulish Throwing Stick Discovery in Normandy: Study and Throwing Experimentations

Author(s)
Luc Bordes 1 ✉,
Anthony Lefort 2,
François Blondel 3
Publication Date
In 2010 archaeological excavations on the pre-Roman site of Urville Nacqueville, Normandy (France) discovered a shaped unknown wooden implement. This boomerang shaped wooden artefact, dated from 120 to 80 BC, has been found in an enclosure trench of a Gaulish village close to a ritual deposit of whalebones...

The Creation of an Experimental Camp of Protohistory at the Iberian Settlement of Estinclells (Verdú, Urgell, Catalonia)

Author(s)
Jordi Morer De Llorens 1,
Ramon Cardona Colell 2 ✉,
Conxita Ferrer Alvarez 2,
Cristina Garcia Dalmau 2,
Josep Pou Vallès 3,
David Asensio I Vilaró 1,
Oriol Saula I Briansó 4,
Natàlia Alonso Martínez 3
Publication Date
The idea to create the Experimental Camp of Protohistory (CEP) emerged in late 2009. It was set up in a field adjacent to the Iberian Culture settlement of Estinclells (Verdú, Urgell), an archaeological site with only one phase of occupation that offers an exceptional portrait of life in the third century BC...

Field Trials in Neolithic Woodworking – (Re)Learning to Use Early Neolithic Stone Adzes

Author(s)
Renger Elburg 1 ✉,
Wulf Hein 2,
Anja Probst-Böhm 3,
Peter Walter 4
Publication Date
OpenArch Dialogue with Skills Issue
***Excavations of several Early Neolithic wells with excellent preservation of the wooden lining in the past years have made clear that Stone Age woodworking already attained a very high level of perfection. This poses the question how it was possible to execute this type of work with the means available at that time...

How Did They Drill That? – A Few Observations on the Possible Methods for Making Large-sized Holes in Antler

Author(s)
Justyna Orłowska 1
Publication Date
From the Neolithic period comes a whole range of various kinds of artefacts made of antler (for example axes, hammer-adzes), distinguished by the presence of a large hole (diameter over 2 cm) in their structure. With time, archaeologists started to wonder about possible ways of producing holes of this type...