Ancient Technology

Just how practical is it to Move a Warp-weighted Loom from between the Interior and Exterior of a Roundhouse?

Helen Poulter (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
Ancient Technology
An experimental programme at Butser Ancient Farm run between 2015 and 2017 was to investigate weaving within a roundhouse on a warp-weighted loom. Part of these investigations was an examination into the feasibility of moving the loom in and out of the house, to take advantage of the longer daylight available in summer...

Weaving Production in Butser Ancient Farm Roundhouses in the South of England

Helen Poulter (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
Ancient Technology
From 2015 to 2017 a series of weaving experiments using warp-weighted looms were conducted in the roundhouses at Butser Ancient Farm. The aim was to focus on the working environment within the roundhouse and to assess any potential issues that may occur whilst weaving, including benefits. The results of the research would also assist in evaluating any seasonal patterns which cause productivity to...

The Process of Making Schist Axes of Paja Ul Deˀŋ – “The People of Big Water”

Alexander Akulov (RU)
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
Ancient Technology
Paja Ul Deˀŋ [padʒaul’deˀŋ] “The People of Big Water” is a conventional and compact name given to Neolithic inhabitants of the territories of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region in their hypothetical reconstructed language (it is possible to state that these people spoke a language that was very close to Yeniseian languages). Paja Ul Deˀŋ made axes/adzes mainly of schist, a process that takes...

A Shared Warp: The Woven Belts of the Lao Han People, China

The set-up of the warp showing the threaded tablets and the positioning of the warp threads to give two open sheds for the top and bottom layers of the tabby tube. (Image: Dominique Brocard)
Celia Elliott-Minty (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
Ancient Technology

The renowned weaver Peter Collingwood briefly mentioned such belts in his book The Techniques of Tablet Weaving (Collingwood, 1982, pp.219-220). Not long before he died in 2008, he contributed a couple of pages on these belts to the book Minority Textile Techniques: Costumes from South-West China (Collingwood, 2007, pp.28-29). 

The Shroud of Turin and the Extra Sheds of Warping Threads. How Hard can it be to Set up a 3/1 Chevron Twill, Herringbone on a Warp-weighted Loom?

Antoinette Merete Olsen (NO)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/4
Ancient Technology
On the 10 May 2020, Mr. Hugh Farey sent me an email. He introduced himself as “a researcher into the weaving of the linen cloth known as the Shroud of Turin”. Then he described the size of the Shroud and how it looked. His question to me was this: “If you had a piece of cloth as described and looked at it closely, could you tell if it was made by a warp-weighted or treadle loom, or would there be no difference?”...

Neolithic Bow Build at Kierikki Stone Age Centre (FI)

Chris Woodland (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/4
Ancient Technology
In July 2019 a group of students from the UK participating in the Placements in Environmental, Archaeological, and Traditional Skills (PEATS) Erasmus + Work Placement, attended the Kierikki Stone Age Centre, Pahkalantie, Finland. Group projects included experimental / experiential projects producing willow fish traps, pottery, and tanning, coordinated by Dr. Peter Groom of the Mesolithic Resource Group...

Techno-functional Study of the Personal Ornaments in Lignite of the Boira Fusca Cave (Cuorgnè, Torino-Italy)

S. Viola (IT),
G. Gaj (IT),
D. Del Caro (IT) and
M. Besse (CH)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/3
Ancient Technology
11th EAC Trento 2019
***This paper aims to present a techno-functional study of lignite ornamental objects found during the Fedele excavations (1977-1980) in the Boira Fusca Cave (Cuorgnè, Salto-Turin, Italy). The site demonstrates a chrono-cultural sequence which extends from the late Palaeolithic to the Modern era...

An Analysis of Contemporary Sources to Uncover the Medieval Identity of the Drink Bochet

Susan Verberg (US)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/3
Ancient Technology
When Le Ménagier de Paris (1393), a medieval household manual detailing a woman's proper behavior in marriage and running a household, was newly translated and republished as The Good Wife’s Guide: a Medieval Household Book by the Cornell University Press in 2009, its collection of recipes – including one for bochet – became easily available to the general public...

The Vertical Olive Crushing Mill as a Machine and its Energy Balance - A Preliminary Approach

Antonis G. Katsarakis (GR)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/2
Ancient Technology

Introduction

The vertical monolithic olive mill of the type of mola olearia which, like the Roman trapetum, first appeared during the Hellenistic era and spread all over the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean, surviving until the 20th century 1 .