EXARC Journal - Latest Articles

The Iron Age Shepherd Sling

David Jackson (UK)
Issue 2019/4
Ancient Technology
The purpose of this experiment was to examine the shepherd sling to form an understanding as to why it would appear to be the most dominant missile weapon of Iron Age Britain (Harding, 2012, p.194). The experiment consisted of making and using the sling, testing its range and accuracy to reveal its strengths and limitations. This experiment was also intended to introduce a different interpretation...

Basalt Handaxes: Preliminarily Testing the Lithic Translation Strategy Hypothesis and Comparisons with the Fontana Ranuccio Site Bifacial Tools

Giorgio Chelidonio (IT)
Issue 2019/4
Experimental Archaeology
11th EAC Trento 2019
***The oldest bifacial “handaxes” known so far belong to the “Kokiselei 4” site, dated to 1.76 Ma (West Turkana, Kenya; Texier, 2018). They have been manufactured by direct lithic percussion on magmatic effusive stone materials. Considering that the evolution of “fully operational intelligence” (Wynn, 1979) has been associated with the so-called...

Everybody Else is doing It, so Why Can’t We? Low-tech and High-tech Approaches in Archaeological Open-Air Museums

Roeland Paardekooper (NL)
Issue 2019/4
Archaeological Open-Air Museum
Some people believe that an open-air museum is a place where you leave your modern technique behind and go ‘low tech’. Other than the museums which act like digital free zones, many others experiment with going digital. Where experience and storytelling have always been the central concepts of archaeological open-air museums, exactly these ideas are behind many digital techniques. We have to...

The Contribution of Experimental Archaeology in Addressing the Analysis of Residues on Spindle-Whorls

Vanessa Forte (UK),
Francesca Coletti (DE, IT),
Elena Ciccarelli (IT) and
Cristina Lemorini (IT)
Issue 2019/4
Experimental Archaeology
11th EAC Trento 2019
***This contribution focuses on residues developing on spindle-whorls during spinning. Such a kind of tools is largely diffused in archaeological contexts where spindle-whorls were used in textile activities or deposited in burials as grave goods. Scholars recently approached...

Replica of the Knife 2165 found in Flixborough a Late Anglo-Saxon Period Knife with an Inlay of Twisted Bronze and Silver Wires

Mauro Fiorentini (IT)
Issue 2019/4
Ancient Technology
This work aims to show the reconstruction of a medieval era knife that was found in Flixborough, Lincolnshire (UK). Flixborough’s Anglo-Saxon cemetery has returned a total of 11 knives that can be dated between the 8th and the 10th century AD. The specimen discussed here is known as Knife 2165 and was found in context 3417 of the site. This knife is the smallest of the inlaid knives found in Flixborough...