EXARC

In Lithuania, experimental archaeology is emerging 🌱 but still faces challenges due to limited resources and skepticism 🤔.

The recent volume Experimental Archaeology: Reconstruction of Material Heritage of Lithuania explores various projects, like reconstructing ancient tools 🛠️ and medieval leatherwork 👜.

This work aims to boost the field’s credibility, build awareness, and preserve Lithuania’s heritage 💼.

📚 Check out more in the full review here: https://exarc.net/issue-2024-4/mm/book-review-experimental-archaeology-lithuania-vol1

🎉 Welcome Aleko! 🎉

Aleko is a master's student in archaeology at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. 📚

🔍 His research interests include the typological and use-wear analysis of stone artifacts, as well as rock art.

🔥In 2023, he began his work in experimental archaeology, combining the fields of rock art, experimental archaeology, and use-wear analysis in his research.

📸 Photos Wanted!

The new EXARC website is almost ready! 🌐

We want to make it as beautiful as possible with your help! ❤️

Do you have any quality picture of Experimental Archaeology 🔨, Ancient and Traditional Technology 🛠️, Heritage Interpretation 📖🏛, or Open-Air Museums 🏕️?

📬 Send your pictures to [email protected], and we’ll include them on our new website!

👉 More info here: https://exarc.net/history/photos-wanted

🎉 On 2024, the village of Daugailiai (Lithuania) celebrated its 770th anniversary 🎂 with a vibrant festival, showcasing demonstrations and experiments in bronze casting 🪔✨.

🔥 Bronze casting was performed using various molds, including clay (lost wax), steatite, and sand casting. The first casts featured a spearhead crafted in a soapstone mold, which held up well until it eventually cracked.

Fibulae (ancient brooches) were also cast using lost wax molds, and finally sand molds were created from a bronze pendant used as a model.

The team experimented with different air venting methods to improve casting quality 🌬️.

🎊 Happy Anniversary, Daugailiai! 🎊

👉 Full event details: https://exarc.net/issue-2024-4/mm/event-review-bronze-casting-daugailiai-lithuania

Jewellery has been an integral element of identity for thousands of years. 💍

Despite this, historic and archaeological examples of these items of adornment have often been understudied and misunderstood. 🏺🔍

This month we are joined by two guests who are intent on changing this, aiming to highlight the true beauty of jewellery in a wider context. 🌍

🔗Listen in to our new podcast episode! https://exarc.net/podcast/not-just-pretty-object

EXARC was featured at a session at the 2023 conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The theme of the conference was Weaving Narratives. With this in mind the session considered how EXARC weaves multiple narratives among its members, through events, conferences, fellowships, and how the organisation connects people all over the world.

👉Here the conference review: https://exarc.net/issue-2024-3/mm/conference-review-exarc-eaa-2023

This year we had an explosive conference! 💥 In September we met in Lelystad to talk about Digitalisation in Open-Air Museums! 🏛️

We spent a lot of time together, eating great Dutch food 🍽️, sharing ideas 💡, and exploring the beautiful museum Batavialand Lelystad, including the deposits!

But that was not all! On the third day, we even went for a boot camp at the open air museum Swifterkamp ! 🏃‍♂️ We chatted, we learned, we had fun! 😄

If you missed the conference presentations, we got you! They are all available on YouTube! 🎥 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLqWUT1pOFU1OxEYKwghDCYFbks07A1Ki6

Are you interested in promoting your organisation, project, or company to a wide audience filled with lovers of archaeology, history, and heritage? Then why not advertise in the EXARC Journal Digest? 📊

The EXARC Journal Digest is published once per year and is our flag ship publication in hard copy. The circulation is 750 copies. 📚

We offer advertisements in full colour, providing an attractive way of presenting your museum or company. The income generated from advertisements directly helps to finance the EXARC Journal, which is peer-reviewed and completely open-access and free for authors. 📧

📇Interested? 🔗 More here: https://exarc.net/history/advertise-digest

👋 Welcome Tom!

"I started experimental archaeology work in 2017 during my undergrad at Cardiff University, continuing this in my archaeology degrees, as a self-employed heritage educator 👩‍🏫, and as a craftsperson 🛠️ making archaeological reproductions for heritage organisations 🏛️.

My interests are Bronze Age ceramics, bronze casting, and ceramic technologies associated with non-ferrous metalworking from the Bronze Age to Early Medieval. I’ve also had the opportunity to be involved in projects working with lithics, antler, bone, glass, and other materials with Cardiff’s Archaeology department 🏫.

I have taught these technologies to a diverse range of groups 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 including members of the public, school groups 🎒, volunteer archaeologists, and university students. In my current role with Cardiff University’s CAER Heritage project 📚, I apply experiential and experimental archaeology relating to the results of our community excavations, furthering research, engagement, and outreach with a focus on co-production 🤝."

During the Mesolithic period, people developed various techniques for making holes in bones, horns, and other osseous materials. 🦴 These perforation methods involved different movements and tools, often using flint in the process. ⛏️

This article explores how hand boring and bow drilling may have been performed, and the distinctive marks these techniques leave on the surfaces of drilled materials. 🌀

Thrilled by the drill? 🔍 Read the full article here: https://exarc.net/issue-2024-3/ea/knowing-drill-investigating-mesolithic-perforation-technologies

Having studied Sociology and Archaeology, I specialize in experimental, sensory, and public food-archaeology 🍇. Since 2000, I have been exploring the evolution of Greek cuisine throughout the centuries and encouraging people to rethink historical dining, class, genre, and ancient food politics through experimental food-archaeology, multi-sensory history-themed dinners, tastings, workshops, and interactive lectures 🎤.

I am also the founder and organizer of the Symposia of Greek Gastronomy 🏛️, biennial weekend-long meetings at which academics, food writers, cooks, activists, artists, and locals discuss issues within Greek food 👩‍🍳.

I have presented papers on Greek food and beyond, winning the Gourmand World Award 2012🏆 for my book ‘The Language of Taste’, and have worked as a historical consultant in international TV productions 📺 and documentaries 🎥.

🎉 WELCOME MARIANA! 🎉

How does firing impact on burnished ceramic surfaces? 🔥

In this new EXARCJournal article the author concludes that temperature, heating rate, and clay type are key factors affecting burnishing in pottery. High temperatures above 900°C, especially with slow heating rates, reduce sheen, with the type of clay determining other major changes.

📇If you are a pottery lover, you can't miss this research!

🔗Read it here: https://exarc.net/issue-2024-3/ea/approaching-pottery-burnishing-through-experimental-firings

📢 Call for Papers! 📝 Deadline on November 30th! ⏳

We are very excited 🎉 to open the first call for papers for our 2025 Experimental Archaeology Conference, hosted in May 2025 by the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) in Curitiba, Brazil! 🇧🇷

We invite participants to submit their abstracts for papers! ✍️ The main themes of the conference are:

🧵 Leatherworking
🧶 Textiles
🔥 Flint
🦴 Bone/Antler
🏺 Pottery
⚙️ Other technologies
📇 Other papers are also welcome and will be fit into the program when possible

📩 Send your abstract! 🔗 Here’s all you need to know: https://exarc.net/history/call-papers-eac14-experimental-archaeology-conference-2025

🎉 Welcome on board Benjamin! 🎉

Benjamin is a graduate student in the field of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn. His primary academic interest lies in 🌊 maritime archaeology, with a particular focus on the historical significance and trade networks of the Maritime Silk Roads.

Benjamin is eager to expand his expertise in 🛠️ experimental archaeology, specifically in the techniques of traditional shipbuilding ⛵

👉Do you want to receive 500 euros to develop a research in experimental archaelogy? 💶We make it possible!!!

We have now opened the second call for applications for the 2024 EXARC Award!

We offers two awards annually of 500 EUR each for worthwhile archaeological experiments, regardless where in the world they are executed and by whom.

Present your project within November 30th 2024!📇

🔗Here all you need to know: https://exarc.net/cooperation/ea-award

A warm welcome to the Gala State Historical-Ethnography Reserve 🎉! Our new institutional member from Azerbaijan 🇦🇿!

The site is located near Baku and spans over 81.5 hectares 🌍!

In this amazing open-air museum you can step back in time to both the Bronze Age and a medieval village! Here, you’ll witness rock paintings 🖼️, reconstructions, and everyday items from the 3rd-2nd millennia BC ⌛!

The highlight of the Gala Reserve is the 15th-century fortress, from which an incredible view of the Absheron Peninsula opens up! 🌅

Discover more on the museum's website: https://www.icherisheher.gov.az/

On 13 March 2024, Lejre Land of Legends and the SAXO Institute at the University of Copenhagen organised a seminar: The Future of Experimentation – from experiment to new archaeological knowledge. 📚

🔗Read the conference review here: https://exarc.net/issue-2024-3/mm/conference-review-future-experimentation-lejre-march-2024

In this episode, two heritage preservation experts discuss what drives them and how they address the perils their teams face in places like Iraq, Mozambique, or Angola. 🌍

Stefano Campana is a Professor of Landscape Archaeology at the University of Siena, specialising in documentation and remote sensing. 📡 Giovanni Fontana Antonelli is an architect and landscape planner who has devoted two decades of his work to safeguarding cultural heritage in the Arab world. 🏛️

🔗Listen to this month's episode! 🎧✨ https://exarc.net/podcast/perils-preservation