Experimental Archaeology

To Use or Not to Use a Minoan Chisel? Ancient Technology in a New Light

Maria Lowe Fri (SE)
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***The Minoan chisel is thought to have been used by the metal worker, the stone mason, the sculptor, the carpenter, and the ivory and bone worker. However, barely any work has been conducted to substantiate the different workers and their chisels...

Reproducing the Wall Painting of the Abduction of Persephone (Vergina-Macedonia): Conditions and Restrictions for a Successful Archaeological Experiment

Μ.Ι. Stefanakis and
Α. Vlavogilakis (GR)
Research on the technique of fresco painting in Macedonian tombs of the late classical period, is currently in progress through the experimental reproduction of the mural the Tomb of Persephone in the Grand Tumulus of Vergina. The purpose of the research is to identify the techniques used by ancient craftspeople, their tools, materials and ...

Variables and Assumptions in Modern Interpretation of Ancient Spinning Technique and Technology Through Archaeological Experimentation

Tracy P. Hudson (QA)
This paper takes the form of a critical analysis of archaeological experiments using spinning tools. The archaeological experiments regarding whorl weight and wool spinning of the Tools and Textiles – Texts and Contexts project, through the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research, are examined with respect to a number of variables...

The Registry of Memory Process Applied to Experimental Archaeology in a Castromao “Oven”

Andrés Teira-Brión (ES),
Josefa Rey-Castiñeira (ES) and
Clíodhna Ní Líonain (IE)
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***Memory is the cognitive process that codifies, stores and retrieves past actions that are perceived in the present, generating our remembrances and perceptions of the past and informing our knowledge of the world around us (...) Applied to archaeology, memory can be understood as the marks or...

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...

The Mummification of Votive Birds: Past and Present

S. D. Atherton and
L. M. McKnight (UK)

Introduction

Animal mummies can be divided into four types: pets, mummified to accompany their owners into the Afterlife; victual, prepared and mummified food offerings for consumption in the Afterlife; cult, an individual selected based upon specific characteristics and markings to be an avatar for their prospective deity; and votive, where the whole population of certain species associated with a particular deity were classed as sacred and therefore worthy of mummification (Ikram and Iskander 2002; Ikram 2005; McKnight 2010).

From Wax to Metal: An Experimental Approach to the Chaîne Opératoire of the Bronze Disk from Urdiñeira

Aaron Lackinger and
Beatriz Comendador (ES)
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***The so-called ‘Treasure of A Urdiñeira‘ (A Gudiña, south-east of the province of Ourense, Spain) consists of an assemblage of three metal artefacts: two gold bracelets and a bronze button or disk, dated from the transition between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age...

The Reconstruction of the Danubian Neolithic House and the Scientific Importance of Architectural Studies

Anick Coudart (US)

Un objet de recherche […] à la fois particulièrement fertile et contraignant, en ce qu'il impose de ne jamais - sauf de façon provisoire - disjoindre le matériel du social et du mental. [A topic of research both particularly fertile and constraining because it demands the one never - except provisionally - separates the material from the social and the mental] Isac Chiva 1987 - La maison: le noyau du fruit, l'arbre, l'avenir. Terrain - Habiter la maison, 9: 5-9.

Copper + Tin + People: Public Co-Smelting Experimentation in Northwestern Iberia

Aaron Lackinger (ES)
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***In the present paper an experiment made in north-western Iberia for producing bronze using local ores and similar techniques to those perhaps practiced by the ancient prehistoric metallurgists during Bronze Age is described...

Living Conditions and Indoor Air Quality in a Reconstructed Viking House

Jannie Marie Christensen (DK)
7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***During the winter of 2011 and 2012 an archaeological indoor environment experiment was conducted in two reconstructions of the same house from the Viking Age built in Denmark. The purpose of the experiment was to examine the living conditions inside the houses during 15 weeks in wintertime...