methodology

Discussion: Experimental versus Experiential Archaeology

Author(s)
Edwin Deady 1,
E. Giovanna Fregni 2 ✉,
Alexander Stewart 3,
Tine Schenck 4,
Chris Thomas 5,
Kate Verkooijen 6,
Sonja Natus 7,
Merryn Dineley 8
Publication Date
This is an extract from a lengthy and lively Facebook discussion in the Experimental Archaeology group, illustrating the main points as it took place between 16 August 2014 and 22 August 2014. The full discussion can be found at: www.facebook.com/groups/experimentalarchaeology(link is external)

Aspects on Realizing House Reconstructions: a Scandinavian Perspective

Author(s)
Ulf Näsman 1 ✉
Publication Date

1987 ESF Proceedings
The 1980s was the beginning of a boom in the construction of archaeologically inspired buildings inside and outside archaeological open-air museums.
***Experiments are an integrated part of archaeological research, a tool used to analyse and understand archaeological phenomena. It is a method as legitimate and as problematic as so many others. The reconstruction of wooden buildings is a main branch of experimental archaeology.

Authenticity is Fiction? Relicts, Narration and Hermeneutics

Author(s)
Jörg van Norden 1 ✉
Publication Date
In many ways, authenticity is everybody’s darling: the historian searches for authentic, historic texts in order to write down history objectively; the readers, naturally, appreciate an authentic description of the past; and museum visitors want to see authentic originals, not replicas...

Discussion: Archaeological Reconstruction in Situ

Author(s)
John H. Jameson 1,2,3,4,
Wulf Hein 5 ✉,
Hannah Simons 6,
Heather Hopkins 7,
Paul Bidwell 8,
Hans Trauner 9,
Marquardt Lund 10,
Renger Elburg 11,
Gary Ball 12,
Martin Müller 13
Publication Date
Is interpreting a site’s past only possible at that site itself? Is a site better off without reconstruction and interpretation because it only damages the original material, if any is still left? Or is this the only way to salvage the story of the site for the generations to come? Ten authors were asked to give their views on the quote: “archaeological reconstruction in situ is the best way to tell the site's own story - on site. Otherwise the site is destroyed or the story lost" – and it is not that straightforward a yes or no.

The Experiment and the Umbrella - 10 Years of Experimental Archaeology

Author(s)
Marianne Bloch Hansen 1 ✉
Publication Date
When reading articles about experimental archaeology written within the last 10 years or so, I find that they often take their point of departure in a brief explanation of the history of the experiment; the birth of the experiment within the positivistic research tradition in the processual archaeology of the 1960s and 1970s, and subsequently, the development and discussions during the postprocessual archaeology of the 1980s.

The Scientific Basis for the Reconstruction of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Houses

Author(s)
Peter J. Reynolds 1 ✉
Publication Date

1987 ESF Proceedings
The 1980s was the beginning of a boom in the construction of archaeologically inspired buildings inside and outside archaeological open-air museums.
***The purpose of this paper was to explore the scientific basis of building reconstructions. The critical issue was to address the problems of reconstruction in order to specify limits within which the reconstruction is of research/educational value and to a set standards which may act as guidelines.