limestone

Experiments with Lime Mortars containing Charcoal and Ashes

Author(s)
Αntonis Vlavogilakis 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/1
We encountered a number of cases in the published archaeological studies where ashes and charcoal were used as aggregates in ancient lime mixtures. These mixtures were tested in a small number of experiments, and this paper presents the results. Our tests confirmed that charcoal retains moisture and can be used to help mortars retain water. It does not, however...

Copper Smelting Could Have Been Discovered in Connection with the Massive Production of Lime Plaster in the Near East During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, which is Much Earlier than Previously Believed

Author(s)
Ulf Fornhammar 1 ✉,
Henry Hammarström 2
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2022/1
A common theory is that copper smelting first appeared in the Near East in close connection with the early pottery industry. However, copper smelting may well have been discovered many times in history and at many places. Our hypothesis is that copper smelting could have been discovered when the copper-bearing mineral malachite, accidentally or intentionally, was present in lime-burning kilns...

Fresco Mixtures with Dried Lime Plaster: Cameron’s Experiments Revisited

Author(s)
Αntonis Vlavogilakis 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/2

During the Bronze Age, craftspeople of the eastern Mediterranean reused fragments of mortars as aggregates in lime mixtures. In the 1970s, Mark Cameron experimented with the techniques of Minoan fresco preparing and painting. His experiments showed that it is possible to create mortar by mixing lime plaster with dried powdered lime plaster, and by mixing dried powdered lime plaster with water...

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

Author(s)
Matthew Amy 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/1
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...

Get into the Grave: Notions of Community Social Identity in a Late 3rd Millennium Site, Derived from an Experimental Carving of a Shaft Tomb at Ramat Bet Shemesh (Israel)

Author(s)
Yoav Tsur 1,
Nofar Kahalani 1,
Yitzhak Paz2 ✉,
Roi Nickelberg2
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2015/1
Khirbet el-Alia is a large mound, located north-east of Tel Yarmouth, in the Ramat Bet Shemesh region of Israel. An excavation that was conducted north of the mound revealed the remains of a settlement and an adjacent cemetery of shaft graves, dating back to the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA)...

To Use or Not to Use a Minoan Chisel? Ancient Technology in a New Light

Author(s)
Maria Lowe Fri 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2014/2
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***The Minoan chisel is thought to have been used by the metal worker, the stone mason, the sculptor, the carpenter, and the ivory and bone worker. However, barely any work has been conducted to substantiate the different workers and their chisels...

Experimental Lime Burning Based on the Findings from the Roman Empire Period

Author(s)
Richard Thér 1 ✉,
David Maršálek 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2013/1

In 2006 the remains of two lime kilns from the Roman Empire period were discovered in Tuněchody near Chrudim in the Czech Republic. These finds became the object of a detailed multidisciplinary research project resulting in hypotheses on the use of the kilns. Based on these hypotheses experimental research was designed (Thér et al. 2010)...