EXARC Journal - Latest Articles

Vegetable Plaiting Materials from the Site of Abu Tbeirah (Southern Iraq, Third Millennium BC): Experimental Approach

Author(s)
Maria Virginia Montorfani 1
Publication Date
This study is based on plaiting materials from Abu Tbeirah, Iraq, with a particular attention to baskets and reed mats. The study focuses on the various raw materials used, on diverse plating techniques and tries to understand possible uses of these artefacts in their context. The research has been developed with an experimental approach, based on archaeological and ethnographic sources...

The Question of Fuel for Cooking in Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Author(s)
Julia Budka 1 ✉,
C. Geiger 1,
P. Heindl 1,
V. Hinterhuber 1,
Johannes Reschreiter 2
Publication Date
Little is known about the actual cooking processes and in particular fuel-related activities in Egypt and Northern Sudan (Nubia) in antiquity, especially during the Bronze Age. Considering that wood was, in general, rare along the Nile valley and therefore an expensive raw material, animal dung was tested in 2018 by means of...

Experimental Archaeology in the Scottish Highlands

Author(s)
Susan Kruse 1
Publication Date
Over the past year, Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands (ARCH) has been running a series of experimental archaeology workshops in the Scottish Highlands. ARCH is a non-profit educational charity, providing learning opportunities inside and out for all ages, always with an eye on the legacy of the event. Our experimental archaeology project was a good example of this approach...

The Construction of a Skin-on-Frame Coracle at Kierikki Stone Age Centre

Author(s)
Peter Groom 1 ✉,
India McDermott 1,
Evon Kirby 1
Publication Date
In July 2018 a group of students from the UK participating in the Placements in Environmental, Archaeological and Traditional Skills (PEATS) Erasmus + Work Placement, attended the Kierikki Stone Age Centre, Pahkalantie, Finland. During the week previous to this experiment, the same group of students had built a skin-on-frame canoe, so the decision was taken to build an alternative lightweight craft...

Early Efforts in Experimental Archaeology: Examples from Evans, Pitt-Rivers, and Abbott

Author(s)
Carolyn Dillian 1
Publication Date
Experimental archaeology formally began more than 150 years ago with attempts in replicative flint knapping by well-known archaeologists such as Sir John Evans, Augustus (Lane Fox) Pitt-Rivers, John Lubbock, and Sven Nilsson (Coles, 1973). These individuals sought to discover how stone tools were made in order to better identify archaeological artifacts as the products of human manufacture and to understand...

Rubobostes' Feast

Author(s)
Marius Ardeleanu
Publication Date
In Romania, in recent years, numerous cultural events and projects have been developed to reconstruct some aspects of everyday life from the past, or to promote archaeological sites (Ardeleanu, 2012, pp.72-73). One of these sites is the Porolissum Archaeological Reserve (Sălaj County). It includes an important prehistoric centre (with discoveries from the Neolithic Age, Bronze Age, Hallstat, and...