Mixed Matters

Book Review: Scelte Tecnologiche, Expertise e Aspetti Sociali della Produzione. Una Metodologia Multidisciplinare Applicata allo Studio della Ceramica Eneolitica by Vanessa Forte

Valeria Tiezzi (IT)
This book is a welcome addition to the bookshelf of Italian archaeologists interested in Prehistory and will certainly be of great use to those who are trying to gain a good understanding of pottery technology. Written in Italian, it is one of the few books in this language dealing with ceramic technology and the social aspects of the production by presenting, as a case study, the Copper Age domestic and ...

Book Review: The Bead Maker From Ribe: The Story of a Viking Craftsman by Thomas Risom

Neil Peterson (CA)
Having been involved with experimental work with Viking Era beads for a decade and a half, I am always looking for more information on the topic. Ribe is the most significant beadmaking site of the Viking Era due to its archaeological remains and the museum’s active experimental, interpretative, and craft programs. New material focusing on this site is thus of particular interest, so I was very pleased to get a copy...

Conference Review: Archaeological Approaches to the Study of the Potter’s Wheel, November 2020, via Discord and YouTube

Chase Minos (GR)
‘Archaeological Approaches to the Study of the Potter’s Wheel’ was a virtual conference hosted on EXARC’s Discord server and YouTube channel from November 24th to 27th of 2020, organised by Dr Caroline Jeffra, Dr Richard Thér, Chase Minos and Dr Roeland Paardekooper. Similar to many conferences affected by COVID-19 restrictions, its initial venue location in Amsterdam, Netherlands was not possible...

Book Review: Ricostruire e Narrare. L’esperienza dei Musei archeologici all’aperto (Reconstructing and storytelling. The experience of archaeological open-air Museums) by M. Valenti

Marco Romeo-Pitone (IT)
This book is particularly welcomed within the scarce Italian literature on the topic of archaeological open-air museums. The lack of debate and accurate information on this type of museums in Italy, drove the author to put together this volume, seven years after the publication of Dr Paardekooper’s magistral “The Value of an Archaeological Open-Air Museum in its use” in 2012, often referred in this book...

Conference Review: A Weekend in Leiden: Knitting History Symposium, 2019

Christine Carnie (UK)
This Conference was organised by the TRC Leiden and the Knitting History Forum in Leiden. On the 2nd of November 2019 I had the opportunity to visit Leiden to take part in the Knitting History Symposium. What follows are my notes and observations and therefore may not accurately reflect what was said. I am very much hoping that the different papers will with time be published and made accessible...

Session Review: ASOR Experimental Archaeology Session, November 2019, San Diego, CA, USA

Tracy L. Spurrier (CA)
In November 2019, Experimental and Experiential Archaeology made its debut as an independent session at the ASOR Annual Meeting in San, Diego, California, USA, featuring research done in the context of the ancient Near East. The session was organized by Tracy L. Spurrier from the University of Toronto who has been dabbling in modern lost wax bronze casting in order to research how...

Book Review: Experimental Archaeology: Making, Understanding, Story-telling by Souyoudzoglou-Haywood and O’Sullivan (eds)

Francesca Tomei (IT)
The volume contains the proceedings of a two-day workshop on Experimental Archaeology, hosted by the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens (Greece) in October 2017. As stated in the Introduction (O’Sullivan, Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, pp. 1-4), the workshop had the purpose to connect the important role played in the field of Experimental Archaeology by ...

Warrior Training in Sagnlandet Lejre – An Exercise in Community, Camaraderie and Cooperation

Jutta Eberhards,
Søren R. Stadsholt and
Peter R. Christensen (DK)
Sagnlandet Lejre is a Knowledge Pedagogical Activity Centre that explores, disseminates and preserves knowledge and trades on traditional historical and prehistoric crafts and living. Since 1964, as the Historical Archaeological Dissemination and Research Centre, Sagnlandet Leire has been a Historical Workshop that makes abstract knowledge concrete, and makes the complex, simple...

A Short Guide to Making Wax Tablets

Αntonis Vlavogilakis (GR)
A few years ago, I conducted a series of experiments focusing on wax tablets as drawing tools in antiquity (Vlavogilakis, in press. All references to my earlier experiments with wax tablets refer to this paper). When this was over, I decided to create a diptych as a present. The method of making was inspired from examples of tablets and diptychs from different periods: Bronze Age...

Book Review: With One Needle: How to Nålbind by Mervi Pasanen

Emma Boast (UK)
In the modern world currently, there is an interest in and desire to understand ancient craft technologies, along with learning the practical side of these skills. Nålbinding is a craft which has been taught and demonstrated for the last 50 years, mainly within heritage and re-enactment communities. The cultural and social history of this craft has survived as a narrative better in some countries than others...