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methods & techniques

Wooden Matrices in Bracteate Production: An Experimental Approach

Author(s)
Magnus R. Aunevik-Berntsen 1 ✉
Publication Date
The literature on the production of Migration Period (c.400-550 AD) gold bracteates has suggested wood as a possible material to be used for the matrix on which bracteates are made, but only in the production of a single or very few bracteates. This study experiments with how such a matrix could have been made and what part of the wood could have been used. Additionally, it examines the quality changes in serial production...

Resurrecting a Bog Dress: A Comparative approach to Medieval Textile Construction

Author(s)
Jake Morton 1 ✉,
Ruby Becker 1,
Helen Banta 1
Publication Date
In this article we recreated garment 38 from the fourteenth century garments preserved in a graveyard in Herjolfsnes, Greenland to explore the reasons behind the stitching techniques used. Using experimental methodologies, previous knowledge of patterning, and hand stitching techniques, we constructed one half of the garment using modern hand stitching techniques and the other using period techniques...

Experimental Recreation of a Pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) Leather Mat

Author(s)
Crystal A. Dozier 1 ✉,
Arland L. Wallace 1
Publication Date
The ethnohistoric record from the American Great Plains indicates that dried pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) strips were often woven into mats as a form of food storage. This form of food storage was likely employed over large geographical areas and deep in time, but archaeological methods for identifying their production and use have been wanting...

Peat Burns: The Methods and Implications of Peat Charcoaling

Author(s)
Paul M. Jack 1 ✉
Publication Date
The Northern Isles of Scotland offer a fascinating case study for understanding past economies and resource management due to the comparative lack of trees found elsewhere in the British Isles. Archaeological evidence proves that this environment did not prevent the development of industrial pursuits in this region during the Iron Age and local accounts dating to ...

Different Vessel Surface Polishing Methods and Mutual Effects of their Applications

Author(s)
Joanna Dymańska 1,
Aleksandra Cetwińska 1 ✉,
Dariusz Manasterski 1
Publication Date
The discovery of an excavated cup with a glossy surface prompted reflection on the polishing of vessel surfaces and their mutual significance. We present the results of the application of three different polishing methods along with a reflection on their function and on the skills and ability of the potter...

An Experimental Approach to Assessing the Tempering and Firing of Local Pottery Production in Nubia during the New Kingdom Period

Author(s)
Julia Budka 1 ✉,
Giulia D’Ercole 1
Publication Date
Recently, the development of an independent strand of study, known as the ‘archaeology of dung,’ has resulted in numerous cross-geographical publications confirming the use of animal dung in archaeological deposits as the main fuel source and several other purposes. Most of these studies focus on the analysis of the microscopic evidence attributable to dung...

Standardized Reporting of Experimental Iron Smelting - A modest (?) Proposal

Author(s)
Darrell Markewitz 1 ✉
Publication Date
The development of effective bloomery iron smelting has progressed over the past decades from the first repeated experiments into documented, effective, methods. This progression has primarily been the work of often isolated individuals, many with great practical experience as artisans, but most often with little formal academic training...

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...

Let the Chips Fall Where They May: Evaluating the Impact and Effectiveness of Video Resources for Knowledge Transfer in Flint Knapping

Author(s)
John Kiernan 1 ✉
Publication Date
Knowledge and know-how: The ‘how’ of knowledge transferal continues to be a question in prehistoric archaeology, especially in relation to early hominid development. Has the transferal process been greatly affected by our so-called modern world and its technological advantages? Have the current modes of communication enhanced and eased the transfer of knowledge? As visualization is a key element...

Groundstone Indications from the Southern Levant for a 7th Millennium BCE Upright Mat Loom

Author(s)
Janet Levy 1 ✉
Publication Date
The southern Levant features a long-established matting tradition: soumak (weft wrapping) and also weft twined matting from the 10th millennium BC, and coiled matting from the 8th millennium BCE. The Chalcolithic period, 5th millennium BCE, attests to the introduction of plain plait, twill, sewn through techniques and also the use of the horizontal ground mat loom...