sword

Book Review: Bronze Age Combat: An Experimental Approach by Raphael Hermann et al

Rena Maguire (UK)

Cometh the hour, cometh the book? There was a considerable anticipatory kerfuffle on archaeological social media about the release of Bronze Age Combat: an experimental approach, and rightly so. It is much more than just an experimental archaeology book with rather gorgeous photographs of swords, spears and shields (although it is that too!). It is a rare publication which manages to...

“A Mirror for Men” – Reconstructing a Medieval Polishing Bench and Putting it to the Test

Florian Messner (AT)
11th EAC Trento 2019
***In the late 5th century AD, the famous Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great received a truly regal gift from the king of the Warini: he was given highly elaborated swords, richly decorated and able to cut through armour. Their fullers (long grooves along the flat side of the blade to reduce weight and to gain stability...

Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and Reenactment - Concept, Problems, Approaches in Our Experience

Gábor Fábián (HU)

There are several reasons why this is so. First of all, re-enactment itself started with the recreation of battles; the tradition goes back all the way to the Roman Empire (for example the naumachia scene during the opening of the Flavian Amphitheatre)

Observations on Italian Bronze Age Sword Production: The Archaeological Record and Experimental Archaeology

Luca Pellegrini and
Federico Scacchetti (IT)
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***In spite of the very large quantity of Bronze Age swords in Northern Italy, only a few stone moulds have been found. Tests have shown that carving such big stone moulds (more than 60 cm long) requires a large amount of raw material, deep knowledge and skill, rather than a wide set of implements...

A Picenian Warrior Who Lived in the Eight Century BC: A Hypothetical Reconstruction

Mauro Fiorentini (IT)

Various populations inhabited this territory from the tenth to the early third century BC, when the Roman army took control of it: the Laziali and Sabini in Lazio, the Etruscans and, from the fifth century, Celts in Toscana and Emilia Romagna, Umbri in Umbria and Picenians in Marche and Abruzzo. At the beginning of the Iron Age, and until the eighth century, we have evidence of other populations as well. The most ancient group being the Sub-Apenninical culture, which were Villanova and Proto-Villanovan populations that seem to have had towns in the Region Marche.

Skansen Archeologiczny Grodzisko w Sopocie (PL)

Member of EXARC
No

The “settlement at Sopot” as theis museum is called shwos visitors the results of research done by the Archaeological Museum in Gdańsk into the world of the early Medieval Pomeranians.

It explains about the history of settlement in Sopot, living conditions and daily activities of its people, old crafts, weapons and contemporary ways of erecting fortifications and houses.

Fotevikens Museum (SE)

Member of EXARC
Yes

25 km south of Malmö, Sweden, you will find the Archaeological Open-Air Museum of Foteviken. Inside a city wall open toward the sea, the world’s only attempt to recreate an entire Viking Age town shows a number of streets with 23 houses and homesteads, reflecting life in a late Viking Age and early Middle Age town in 1134 AD.

25 km south of Malmö, Sweden, you will find the Archaeological Open-Air Museum of Foteviken. Inside a city wall open toward the sea, the world’s only attempt to recreate an entire Viking Age town shows a number of streets with 23 houses and homesteads...