EXARC Journal - Latest Articles

Bottle Gourd as an Implement for the Poor in Roman Italy

Author(s)
Brittany Bauer 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2
Bottle gourds, which are thought to have originated in Africa, have been collected and cultivated in Italy since antiquity for the making of vessels and utensils, as well as food, musical instruments, and fishing buoys. Columella and Pliny the Elder both write extensively about the uses of bottle gourds, yet the importance of this vegetable in antiquity is notably absent from modern scholarship...

Diet of the Poor in Roman Italy: An Exploration of Wild and Cultivated Plants as an Essential Dietary Component

Author(s)
Brittany Bauer 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2
Most of the population of Roman Italy was poor, whether they were the poor who were constantly in search for food and shelter, or the temporarily poor who were artisans or shopkeepers but could fall into poverty at times. In classical literature, pleasures of the mind were favoured over pleasures of the body. Epictetus wrote that only stupid men spent time dwelling on matters of the body such as eating...

Smelting Conditions and Smelting Products: Experimental Insights into the Development of Iron Bloomery Furnaces

Author(s)
Yvette A. Marks 1 ✉,
N. Groat 1,
L. O. Lortie 1,
M. Hughes 1,
H. F. Thompson 1,
C. J. Woodland 1,
T. MS Adams 1,
T. Thorpe 1,
Bangcheng Tang 1,
R. Kenyon 1,
B. Langhorne 1,
J. Fraser-Darling 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2
The material record for bloomery furnaces in Iron Age and Roman Britain is fragmentary and, because of this paucity of evidence, the reconstruction of the ceramic structures used in iron production is difficult. Experiments have nevertheless been carried out to ...

Throwing Stick to Spear Thrower - Study of Ethnographic Artefacts and Experimentation

Author(s)
Luc Bordes 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2

An evolution that might have let some traces in the features of some particular Australian Aboriginal wooden implements.

Background

Short review of the antiquity of the three main types of prehistoric projectile weaponry

The bow, an invention reflecting a new hunting environment

Roar Ege: The Lifecycle of a Reconstructed Viking Ship

Author(s)
Tríona Sørensen 1 ✉,
Martin Rodevad Dael 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2

Roar Ege was launched in 1984, and after more than 30 years on the water, has many sea miles under its keel. The years have, however, taken their toll on the ship. Roar Ege has undergone several major phases of repair – most recently in 2014. It was hoped this repair would keep Roar Ege afloat for several more years but by spring 2016, the ship had deteriorated to such an extent that it was clear that Roar Ege’s sailing days were over.

Flax Fibre Extraction Techniques in the Late Middle Ages

Author(s)
Martina König 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2
On its surface, linen production research is simple as there is a large corpus of books available; however, the majority of these date to the last three centuries. Older texts, while available, tend to concentrate on the textiles themselves and their trade. As a result, I had to collect the information on medieval tools and manufacturing process myself. I have grown and processed flax ...