The RETOLD project ensures that open-air museums continue telling important cultural heritage stories to a diverse public by developing a standardised workflow to collect, digitise, and share data on buildings, crafts, and traditions.
Themed Collections
Archaeological experiments have been executed over time with many metals used in the past by mankind. Luckily many archaeological objects remain, containing details of their production, use, repair, and discard. In the articles here, you will find mention of copper, bronze, iron, silver...
Sustainability is an issue that affects us all and EXARC is proud to support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). How do the SDGs relate to archaeology and open-air museums? How can archaeology contribute to achieving the SDGs?...
You will find book reviews in each EXARC Journal we publish. We like to talk about what other people publish on experimental archaeology and museums, all to make it easy for our readers to see what is being published on the topics...
A musical instrument is an object that was used to or designed to create music but it the purpose of the user that gives it the real meaning. The objects are made from different materials like bone, wood or even stone and can come in different shape and sizes, like pipes...
The #EAC12 Conference was an “around the world in 80 experiments” taking place in March 2021. It started in Australia, turning towards Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America as the time proceeds, and that for 4 days. #EAC12 had online lectures as well as ...
Textiles do not often appear in archaeological excavations. We find them in stable situations, for example completely under water or in desert like circumstances. When archaeologists do find textile remains, there usually is a lot of information we can derive from those...
Ceramics are an important archaeological source of information, teaching us indirectly more about the people in the past who made, used and discarded it. Experimentation may include making ceramics with similar clay sources, techniques or...
Archaeology and adult education are a good pair. This does not include only the training of archaeology students – as archaeology deals with many aspects of the past, teaching about these aspects is relevant to any adult public, showing how people dealt with situations in...
Teaching school children is one of the prime reasons why we have archaeological open-air museums. Many education centres only serve school groups, and are not even open to day visitors. Examples can be found in Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain...
The 11th Experimental Archaeology Conference (EAC11) was held in Trento, Italy in May 2019, organized by EXARC and the University of Trento. Over 190 participants gathered together hailing from more than 25 countries, and for the first time the conference ran parallel sessions.
Many people have a lasting influence on the field of archaeological open-air museums or experimental archaeology. They often approach the world in a non-conformist way, leading to interesting new ways of looking at the matter. EXARC offers these...
While archaeologists discover ever more sites and gain insight in the past, the challenge is to convey these stories accurately to the public in an appealing way. During the conference at Kernavė (LT) the mix of people and program was remarkable...
At EXARC Conferences, but also in our Social Media, EXARC Members and other specialists discuss important themes. Several of these discussions are published here. This will help people forming an opinion and not reinventing the wheel...
The 10th International Experimental Archaeology Conference (held in April 2017) was hosted jointly by EXARC and Material Culture Studies, Leiden University (NL). The conference two days with 125 delegates, followed by...
The Dialogue with Skills in Archaeological Open-Air Museums was an important Theme in the OpenArch-Project, coordinated by the Museum of Modena (Italy) and the Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf (Germany)....
The 7th International Experimental Archaeology Conference (held in January 2013) was hosted jointly by the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University and St Fagan’s Open-Air Museum (UK). Two days with over 100 delegates...
In 1999, at the archaeological education centre Wilhelminaoord, an international workshop took place, with a focus on the experimental and educational aspects of bronze metallurgy. The Proceedings, published in hard copy by VAEE, are republished here by EXARC...
The 1980s saw a boom of new archaeological open-air museums. The 1987 ESF workshop in Århus on the reconstruction of wooden buildings was initiated by professors Waterbolk and Olsen. Some of the problems addressed there are still valid today...
There have been conferences on experimental archaeology in the German language area since the start of the famous exhibition, made in Oldenburg, under guidance of Professor Fansa, in 1990. This led in 2002 to the foundation of EXAR (without a 'c' at the end)...
Throughout the years, EXARC published many reports on archaeological experiments. But what are the do's and don'ts about such publishing? Already back in 2005, we asked this question to five specialists and received interesting answers...
