book

Book Review: Slow Tech by Peter Ginn

Jonny Crockett (UK)
Slow Tech by Peter Ginn is a guide for step-by-step experimental archaeology. It is more a manual than a text or reference book, clearly showing the chaîne opératoire for potential experiments to try at home. Each of the five chapters includes a brief introduction to the relevant topics, followed by a series of experiments with clear procedure instructions and lists of required equipment...

Book Review: Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa, Jahrbuch 2019

Stefanie Ulrich (UK)
Annual Proceedings of the EXAR Tagung
***It is the 18th issue of the periodical and includes 27 essays on experimental archaeology as well as an annual report (Jahresbericht, p. 321), an obituary for Sylvia Crumbach (p.325) and instructions for authors (Autorenrichtlinien, p. 326) of Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa on 328 pages...

Book Review: Interpreting the Environment at Museums and Historic Sites by Reid and Vali

V. M. Roberts (CA)

Interpreting the Environment at Museums and Historic Sites is a textbook and a call to action. In the midst of the Anthropocene, Debra A. Reid and David D. Vail argue, museums and conservation areas should attend to their environmental assets, tell environmental stories, and take an activist role in encouraging better stewardship.

Book Review: Architectures of Fire: Processes, Space and Agency in Pyrotechnologies edited by Dragos Gheoghiu

Gregg Griffin (UK)
This book is a collection of six papers from the 2015 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists session with the same title, co-organised by Dragoş Gheoghiu and Derek Pitman. The contributors to this work are a global team of thirteen archaeology researchers and experimental archaeologists who have studied different aspects of the use of fire and its influence on...

Book Review: An Archaeology of Skill: Metalworking Skill and Material Specialization in Early Bronze Age Central Europe by Maikel H.G. Kuijpers

E. Giovanna Fregni (IT)
Craft is a difficult thing to define. The skills required to make objects is ephemeral. We know it when we see the results of craftsmanship, but studies about understanding the development and practice of the skills of craftsmanship are rare. Furthermore, the application of these studies to archaeology are almost non-existent. Statements about craft in archaeological literature are made in ...

Book Review: Pfeil und Bogen in der Römischen Kaiserzeit, by Holger Riesch

Antje Wilton (DE)
This book closes a gap both in the documentation of the history of the Roman army as well as the history of archery in that it provides a very comprehensive overview on the use of bow and arrow in the Roman Empire. It collects and systematically discusses a wealth of information on a range of topics related to Roman archery in the imperial period and extends that discussion to previous and following periods...

Book Review: Viking Age Brew, by Mika Laitinen

Merryn Dineley (UK)
What did ale and beer taste like in the past? How was it made? What sort of equipment did they use and what were the ingredients? The answers to all of these questions, and more, can be found in this book. Archaeologists, experimental archaeologists, brewing historians and anyone interested in ancient technologies will find this book invaluable as an easily accessible study and explanation of ...

Book Review: The Living History Anthology, Perspectives from ALHFAM by Martha B. Katz-Hymann et al. (eds)

Roeland Paardekooper (NL)
Many open-air museums in the United States are members of the Association of Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM). Only a small portion of the ALHFAM members are agricultural museums, however living history in a museum context is what unites the members...