tools

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

Alexander Akulov (RU)
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...

Roe Deer as Raw Material for Middle Mesolithic Fishhooks? An Experimental Approach to the Manufacture of Small Bone Fishhooks

Anja Mansrud and
Morten Kutschera (NO)
Bone fishhooks have occasionally been retrieved from bone assemblages at coastal sites dating to the Middle Mesolithic phase (8300-6300 cal. BC) in Southern Norway and Western Sweden. Several studies of fishhooks from these sites have been undertaken in recent years. Fishhooks can be manufactured from different osseous materials, including antler, ribs and shafts of different long bones...

Trampling Experiments – A Contribution to the Pseudo-Retouch Issue

K. Šprem,
K. Gerometta and
I. Karavanić (HR)
11th EAC Trento 2019
***Apart from human-made retouch, stone tools can also exhibit traces of damage caused by several post depositional processes, one of which is trampling. Edge damage provoked by trampling, be it of animal or human origin, is sometimes interpreted as human-made retouch ...

Hafted Tool-use Experiments with Australian Aboriginal Plant Adhesives: Triodia Spinifex, Xanthorrhoea Grass Tree and Lechenaultia divaricata Mindrie

V. Rots (BE),
E. Hayes (AU),
K. Akerman (AU),
P. Green (AU),
C. Clarkson (AU),
C. Lepers (BE),
L. Bordes (FR),
C. McAdams (AU),
E. Foley (AU) and
R. Fullagar (AU)
Hafted stone tools commonly figure in Australian archaeology but hafting traces and manufacture processes are infrequently studied. The Aboriginal processing of resin from Xanthorrhoea (Sol. Ex Sm.) grass tree, Triodia (R.Br.) spinifex and Lechenaultia divaricata (F.Muell.)...

Bringing Experimental Lithic Technology to Paleoamerican Brazilian Archaeology: Replication Studies on the Rioclarense and Garivaldinense Industries

João Carlos Moreno De Sousa (BR)

Introduction

Despite experimental archaeological approaches being well known in Brazilian archaeology since the 1970’s, it has rarely produced studies until the beginning of the 21th century. The first deep debate on the subject of experimental archaeology was provided by Miller Jr. (1975), specifically on the application of the approach to lithic technology using Corumbataí flint - typical raw material from the Rioclarense industry. In that occasion, Miller Jr.

The Experimental Building of a Wooden Watchtower in the Carolingian Southern Frontier

I. Ollich-Castanyer,
A. Pratdesaba,
M. de Rocafiguera,
M. Ocaña,
O. Amblàs,
M. À. Pujol and
D. Serrat (ES)
10th EAC Leiden 2017
***During fifteen days of June 2015, the team of l’Esquerda worked in a research project to build a Carolingian wooden watchtower on the River Ter, in Roda de Ter, Catalonia, Spain. The idea was to test our hypotheses experimentally, (a) if the wooden watchtower could...

Adze-plane, Skeparnon, Multipurpose Adze or Two-handled Adze? Practical Work with an Alleged Predecessor of the Woodworking Plane

Rüdiger Schwarz (DE)
10th EAC Leiden 2017
***This article presents a practical approach to a Graeco-Roman woodworking tool called “ascia-Hobel” in the archaeological literature, respectively “adze-plane” as the corresponding English term. The tool in question consists of an often semi-circular adze-blade attached to a two-handled shaft and seems to be suited both for chopping and...

Research, Experimentation and Outreach in the Early Neolithic Site of La Draga (Banyoles-Spain)

A. Palomo,
R. Piqué,
X. Terradas,
J. A. Barceló,
J. A. Rodríguez,
M. Buch,
J. Junkmanns,
M. de Diego and
O. López (ES)
The exceptional preservation of organic material in the early Neolithic site of La Draga (Banyoles, north-east Iberian Peninsula) has allowed lines of research that had rarely been undertaken in the region. The research project carried out at the site of La Draga involves experimental archaeology as a...

Reconstruction of the Ancient Greek Long Jump - an Opportunity for Multidisciplinary Collaboration

Hannah Friedman and
Peter J. Miller (US)
The Games of the XXXI Olympiad – the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (5 August to 21 August, 2016) – continued the long tradition of Olympic sports, which began in ancient Greece (circa 776 BCE), and were heavily modified in their re-creation by the International Olympic Committee...