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...

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...

REARC Conferences
***The 9th annual Reconstructive and Experimental Archaeology Conference, hosted by the Center for Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington and George Washington’s Ferry Farm in Fredericksburg, Virginia, took place between October 25th and 26th...

This paperback volume comprises 48 pages with several unnumbered black and white illustrations and some colour illustrations. It is a monograph dedicated to the Picenian warriors, who lived mainly in Abruzzo and Marche (central east Italy) from the IX century BC until the romanization of the area (p. 5).

This study is based on plaiting materials from Abu Tbeirah, Iraq, with a particular attention to baskets and reed mats. The study focuses on the various raw materials used, on diverse plating techniques and tries to understand possible uses of these artefacts in their context. The research has been developed with an experimental approach, based on archaeological and ethnographic sources...

In this paper, details are presented for three technical approaches that can be employed in the reproduction of Celtic coins from Britain: 1) the use of pellet trays to produce coin blanks of standardised weight; 2) the use of successive iterations of clay moulds to shrink coin design images while retaining clarity; and 3) the use of a low-carbon steel die that was heated to a plastic state and struck with a cast bronze slug to...

The Archäologisches Landesmuseum in Brandenburg hosted the annual Archäotechnika living history event, during the weekend of 11 to the 13 August 2018. Participants were attired in clothing appropriate to the period and worked in a variety of crafts including metalwork, stone tool production, textiles, salt production, fishnets and traps, textiles and dying, and demonstrations in horsemanship...

The Rapa Nui civilization once thrived on Easter Island, and produced unique statues which became a parable for collapse around the world (Hunt and Lipo, 2011). Several experiments have been conducted to better understand this collapse, specifically surrounding the movement of the islands’ largest inhabitants, the moai – the large monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people...

A new longhouse model in Hitzacker

The town of Hitzacker is situated adjacent to the river Elbe in the district Lüchow-Dannenberg, east of Lower Saxony. The discovery of wide Bronze Age settlement structures in Hitzacker in the 1980s led to the founding of a Bronze Age open air museum called AZH - Archaeological Center Hitzacker. Along with other archaeological models of Bronze Age architecture, three Longhouses were the main attractions of the institution and were also focal points of the educational programs. The destruction of one Longhouse by arson in 2008 was a great loss.