EXARC Journal - Latest Articles

In Italy, chocolate (Theobroma cacao L.) was introduced during the Columbian exchange, and it quickly became both an important and accessible part of the Italian culinary tradition. Today, Italy is Europe’s second-largest chocolate producer...

In this article, an experimental programme is used to examine how boomerangs may be used to retouch stone tools. The programme's findings confirm ethnographic data pertaining to the employment of hardwood boomerangs in retouching activities and investigate their technological similarities to Palaeolithic bone retouchers...

In the Upper Palaeolithic levels of the site of Grotta Continenza (Abruzzo, Italy), numerous shells shaped as half-moons have been found. These artifacts, being important examples of ancient ornaments, have been regularly subjects of study, but the production process has only been hypothesised...

Introduction

“Vikings unwittingly made their swords stronger by trying to imbue them with spirits.
Iron Age Scandinavians only had access to poor quality iron, which put them at a tactical disadvantage against their neighbors.
To strengthen their swords, smiths used the bones of their dead ancestors and animals, hoping to transfer the spirit into their blades.
They couldn't have known that in so doing, they were forging a rudimentary form of steel.“

Matt Davis (2019)

Introduction

Experiments on glass bead techniques used in antiquity have produced many insights into how early medieval beadmakers made their beads (Heaser, 2018). The studies mainly focused on early medieval beads found in cemeteries of the fifth and sixth centuries AD in England. Replica tools and a simple modern blow torch were used to simulate the conditions of the ancient beadmakers (See Appendix 1).

In her book, Celtiform Pendants of Pre-Columbian Costa Rica: Production, distribution, and experimental replication, Waka Kuboyama-Haraikawa seeks to highlight lapidary technologies in Costa Rica by examining the social application and production of celtiform pendants. Haraikawa is a PhD research fellow for the Center for Northeast Asian Studies...