fire

Reconstructing the Pyrotechnological Development of the Harappans Using Ethnoarchaeological Parallels in The Region of Ghaggar, India

Author(s)
Garima Singh 1
Publication Date
Indus Valley Civilization flourished in India and Pakistan owing to its technological advancements dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. The present paper aims to trace the emergence of pyrotechnology through documenting the industrial settlements that have been excavated in recent years, as well as locating the potential trading network for the craft items being produced at these small settlements on...

Pilot fires: Preliminary Report from Interdisciplinary Actualistic Fire Experiments

Author(s)
Silje Evjenth Bentsen 1,2,3 ✉,
Magnus Haaland 3,4,
Jovana Milic 3,,
Turid Hillestad Nel 3,,
Ole F. Unhammer 3,,
Elizabeth Velliky 3,
Publication Date
Hearth formation processes are complex. They involve multiple actions, reactions, and activities before, during, and after an active fire and can also impact a wide range of materials and sediments at an archaeological site. Archaeologists approach combustion features and formation processes from multiple analytical perspectives...

A Spark of Inspiration: Experimentally Testing Manganese Dioxide as a Fire Lighting Aide

Author(s)
Andy Langley 1 ✉,
Andy Needham 1
Publication Date
Evidence for the production, use, and control of fire by Neanderthals in Europe ranges from the scale of ecosystems to microscopic alterations of artefacts. While there is a consensus that Neanderthals were skilled in the use of fire, there remains a dispute over whether they had mastered the ability to produce fire on demand. The unique discovery that Neanderthals may have been utilising manganese dioxide as...

Barely Scratching the Surface: An Experimental Approach to Engraved Magdalenian Plaquettes

Author(s)
Matthew Amy 1
Publication Date
This paper investigates the creation, utilisation, and destruction of engraved Magdalenian plaquettes through the application of actualistic experimental replication. Archaeological evidence suggests that there is a relationship between plaquettes and hearth structures, as well as engraved depictions and the destruction of the plaquettes through heating. However, this relationship between fire and plaquettes...

Experimental Research on the Setting up and Exploitation of the Human Prehistoric Habitat in the Middle Dniester Region

Author(s)
I. Niculiţă 1,
S. Matveev 1,
A. Nicic 1,2 ✉,
A. Corobcean 1
Publication Date

Project incipience

The link established between EXARC and the Scientific Research Laboratory "Thracology" (Moldova State University) inspired the initiation of the first major project in the field of experimental archeology for the Republic of Moldova. The purpose of this project was to organize an experimental archeological open-air park in Saharna-Ţiglău (Nicic, 2009). 

The Experimental Reconstruction of an Early Neolithic Underground Oven of Portonovo (Italy)

Author(s)
Cecilia Conati Barbaro 1 ✉,
Vanessa Forte 1,
Alberto Rossi 2
Publication Date
11th EAC Trento 2019
***This contribution presents the experimental reconstruction of an underground oven replicated according to the archaeological evidence unearthed from the Early Neolithic site of Portonovo-Fosso Fontanaccia (Ancona-Italy). A domed structure, measuring 190x180 cm diameter at the base and 50 cm in height, was dug in 15 hours...

Book Review: Architectures of Fire: Processes, Space and Agency in Pyrotechnologies edited by Dragos Gheoghiu

Author(s)
Gregg Griffin 1
Publication Date
This book is a collection of six papers from the 2015 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists session with the same title, co-organised by Dragoş Gheoghiu and Derek Pitman. The contributors to this work are a global team of thirteen archaeology researchers and experimental archaeologists who have studied different aspects of the use of fire and its influence on...

The Variation of Elastic Modulus and Changes of Structures and Mineral Phases in Rocks as Parameters for the Identification of Fire-Setting in Ancient Mines

Author(s)
Angela Celauro 1 ✉,
Alexander Maass 2
Publication Date
The article is focused on the creation of a protocol for the analytical characterization of fire-setting in different types of rock. A set of experiments of heating and cooling have been carried out on different kind of rocks under various conditions and durations in order to record changes in the structures and composition of the samples. This study was set to support the solution of issues in the case of...