flint

Mining at Pozarrate: Applying Experimental Approaches to Understand the Neolithic Extraction of Flint in the Sierra de Araico (Treviño, Spain)

H.H. Hernández,
C. López-Tascón,
M. Aguirre and
A. Tarriño (ES)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/1
Experimental Archaeology
11th EAC Trento 2019
***The aim of this paper is to introduce the scientific works performed in the Sierra de Araico Neolithic Mining Complex, mainly located in the Treviño enclave of Spain. Archaeological works were focused on the Pozarrate quarry, dated to the Neolithic period (6000-5600 BP). This site is unique since it has been used recently to...

Basalt Handaxes: Preliminarily Testing the Lithic Translation Strategy Hypothesis and Comparisons with the Fontana Ranuccio Site Bifacial Tools

Giorgio Chelidonio (IT)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/4
Experimental Archaeology
11th EAC Trento 2019
***The oldest bifacial “handaxes” known so far belong to the “Kokiselei 4” site, dated to 1.76 Ma (West Turkana, Kenya; Texier, 2018). They have been manufactured by direct lithic percussion on magmatic effusive stone materials. Considering that the evolution of “fully operational intelligence” (Wynn, 1979) has been associated with the so-called...

Early Efforts in Experimental Archaeology: Examples from Evans, Pitt-Rivers, and Abbott

Carolyn Dillian (US)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/1
Experimental Archaeology
Experimental archaeology formally began more than 150 years ago with attempts in replicative flint knapping by well-known archaeologists such as Sir John Evans, Augustus (Lane Fox) Pitt-Rivers, John Lubbock, and Sven Nilsson (Coles, 1973). These individuals sought to discover how stone tools were made in order to better identify archaeological artifacts as the products of human manufacture and to understand...

Flint

A very hard form of a sedimentary siliceous rock found in chalk and limestone, used as a tool, a weapon or to produce a spark and make fire.

How Did They Drill That? – A Few Observations on the Possible Methods for Making Large-sized Holes in Antler

Justyna Orłowska (PL)
EXARC Journal Issue 2015/2
Experimental Archaeology
From the Neolithic period comes a whole range of various kinds of artefacts made of antler (for example axes, hammer-adzes), distinguished by the presence of a large hole (diameter over 2 cm) in their structure. With time, archaeologists started to wonder about possible ways of producing holes of this type...

Book Review: The Emergence of Pressure Blade Making: from Origin to Modern Experimentation by Pierre M. Desrosiers (editor)

Justin Pargeter (ZA)
EXARC Journal Issue 2014/1
Mixed Matters

There are few issues in lithic studies that have captured the imagination and attention of researchers as much as laminar (blade) technologies (see Bar-Yosef & Kuhn 2009). This has resulted in a rich and detailed body of academic work partly reflected in Pierre M. Desrosiers’ (Ed.) The Emergence of Pressure Blade Making: From Origin to Modern Experimentation...

Lithic Experiments in Rescue Archaeology: a Case from Southern Norway

S.V. Nielsen,
J. Åkerstrøm and
T. Vihovde (NO)
EXARC Journal Issue 2013/2
Experimental Archaeology

To test whether or not the form of the discovered quartz was a result of prehistoric technological choices, a fracture analysis on collected vein quartz from Aust-Agder County was conducted1 . Lithic experimentation is traditionally associated with either institutionalized academic research or post-production phases of excavations.

Conference Review: 8th Spanish Experimental Archaeology Workshop

Javier Baena Preysler (ES)
EXARC Journal Issue 2013/1
Mixed Matters
During the penultimate week of September a new Experimental Archaeology Workshop was held in the city of Caspe (Zaragoza, Sain). Organised by several institutions, including the Fundación Fernando El Católico, the City Hall of Caspe, the University of Zaragoza and the Diputación of Aragón, this was the...

Results of a Discussion on the State of Experimental Archaeology in Switzerland

T. Doppler,
S. Osimitz and
K. Schäppi (CH)
EXARC Journal Issue 2012/3
Experimental Archaeology
On 27 March 2010, the board of the Working Group on Experimental Archaeology in Switzerland (AEAS-GAES) invited a panel of experts to hold a public debate in Olten on whether the incentives that had existed at the time still played their part, how they were now constituted and what the future perspectives were...