EXARC Extracts 2024/2

The 2024/2 EXARC Journal brings you eight reviewed and five mixed matter articles. All the articles are open access to allow for free exchange of information and further development of our knowledge of the past.

The reviewed articles come from far and wide. The majority of the articles come from Europe with two from the United States. Luc Bordes’ article is dedicated to the evolution of throwing sticks. The article by Alexander Whitehead, Anthony Sinclair and Christopher Scott talks about the use of experimental archaeology in research of the pathogenic properties of bifacial butchery tools during the Middle Pleistocene. Marie-Elise Porqueddu, Nuria Castaneda Clemente and Javier Baena Preysler investigate the technical gestures used in mining flint. ‘Hay is for horses’ by Rena Maguire and Robert Johnson tests the hypothesis that post-Iron Age bridles in Ireland could have been made of straw and rushes. Those are only four of the eight articles. The others are dedicated to classification of archaeological open-air museums, Roman baking, Roman metalworking and Etruscan weaving.

The mixed matters section contains an obituary for Andy Kurzweil, the adventures and experiences of three Romanian archaeology students in archaeological open-air museums in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There is a book review of Experimental Archaeology: Reconstruction of Material Heritage of Lithuania II. Finally there are two articles documenting the RETOLD project.

Transcript

Welcome to EXARC Extracts with me, Matilda Siebrecht, as we summarise the latest reviewed articles from the most recent issue of the EXARC Journal.

Hello and welcome to the second episode of EXARC Extracts for 2024. My apologies, I'm a bit ill at the moment so if I sound a little croaky, that is why… 
 
 So, for the journal, our first peer-reviewed article is entitled Hay is for Horses: Making and Using a Traditional-Style Irish Straw Harness, written by Rena Maguire and Robert Johnston. There has been very little physical evidence of metal lorinery in the archaeological record of medieval Ireland, and the authors suggest that this may be because they were actually made from organic components – namely straw and rushes. Experiments were conducted in making and using a plaited straw bridle, with very interesting (and I should say successful!) experimental and experiential results, and an in-depth methodology and discussion. 

Next up we have The production of Roman metal screw threads – extended version by David Sim and Chris Legg. This article follows on from a previous article on the same topic by the same authors that was published in the Spring 2023 edition of the EXARC Journal [so I would recommend going back and having a look at that first before you read this one]. Both articles involve the replication and testing of different types of screw threads. This particular article goes into a lot of detail on the different types, with a really great overview of the different methodological steps and materials used.

Our third article is An Experimental Approach to Baking Ancient Roman Placenta written by Jake Morton and Ellen Schlick. (Just to clarify, because I needed to check this myself - placenta in this case is the name of a particular kind of layered bread-product and cheese dish! - just so you’re aware…) The recipe being replicated in this article comes from Cato the Elder and his guide to farming and life entitled quite simply enough On Farming (de agri cultura). One aspect that the authors were particularly interested in was the inclusion of farro paste, which they had not previously come across in either ancient or modern recipes. The paper goes into detail in the methodological process, and there are some fascinating results related to the crucial inclusion of farro paste in this particular recipe. 

Fourth is a study by Richard Joseph Palmer entitled Tarquinia’s Tablet: a Reconstruction of Tablet-Weaving Patterns found in the Tomb of the Triclinium. This experimental study aims to replicate specific woven patterns depicted in paintings at key Etruscan sites – and more specifically the Tomb of the Triclinium. [apologies for any pronunciation errors] The article provides an extremely detailed account of the cultural background and materials, and the experimental tablet-woven patterns, fibre, and dimensions used. The study is intended to further the conversation on Etruscan textiles and tablet-weaving, and it definitely provided much food for thought!

Next up is a fascinating scientific study called Cross-Contamination via Stone Tool Use: A Pilot Study of Bifacial Butchery Tools written by Alexander Whitehead, Anthony Sinclair, and Christopher Scott. The hypothesis of the authors is that bifacial butchery tools were quite often discarded after use – despite still being useable – and this was because any lingering animal tissue captured along the edges - according to the authors this is - would quickly go off and thus cause risk of introducing pathogens into future foodstuffs if used again. The experiments used replica bifacial tools in butchery tasks, and then cleaned them using various different methods that could have been applied in prehistory before analysing them microscopically. The results provide some really interesting points of discussion regarding the focus of microscopic analysis studies but also research into the pathogenic environment in prehistory. 

Another experimental study next up by Marie-Élise Porqueddu, Nuria Castañeda Clemente, and Javier Baena Preysler entitled Experimental Approach to Flint Shaft Mining: Understanding the Extraction Process and the Technical Gesture at Casa Montero (Madrid, Spain). The authors took inspiration and archaeological references from the Casa Montero flint mine in Spain – one of the oldest known in Europe and active between 5350-5220 BC. Experiments were conducted using a wide range of replica tools (from picks to hammers to wedges) with a variety of gestures, in order to gain a better understanding of the process of mining itself. Research into prehistoric mines and quarries is abundant, but there are very few studies such as this one which look at the actual carving out of the mining shafts. The results lead to further insights not just in the mining activity itself, but on the people and the groups who were extracting the flint and how they worked there.

The next study is A Scheme of Evolution for Throwing Sticks by Luc Bordes. While the study of stone tools has allowed us to document the development of different styles and technologies over hundreds of thousands of years, wooden objects rarely survive in the archaeological record and so our understanding of how this technology developed throughout human history is extremely limited. Taking the Australian boomerang and the diversity of its forms as a starting point, the author proposes a scheme of evolution for throwing sticks, based on ethnography and experimental archaeology. The insights gained from this approach are really fascinating and discussed at length in the article. I would definitely recommend a read of this one.

Our final peer-reviewed article of this edition is a paper by Federico Cappadona entitled Which Type of Archaeological Open-Air Museum? A Classification Proposal. As anyone who has browsed the EXARC membership database is no doubt aware, there is a lot of diversity within the broader classification of an Archaeological Open-Air Museum (AOAM). In this article, the author suggests a first step towards focussing this classification in order to better define the different varieties of AOAMs. The two main elements at the base of this proposed classification system are the chronological period displayed (i.e. mono-period or multi-period), and the location (on-site, off-site, and hybrid). The articles provides some case studies as examples, and a really interesting first step in further developing our terminology when it comes to AOAMs.    

As well as our peer-reviewed articles, we also have five unreviewed Mixed Matters articles, including an Obituary for Andy Kurzweil (16 July 1945 – 13 March 2023) written by Dieter Todtenhaupt. There is also a really interesting report by Maria-Cristina Ciobanu, Adina Amăriuței, and Analisa Ariton entitled Crossing Borders and Eras: the adventures and experiences of three Romanian Archaeology Students in two European Archaeological Open-Air Museums: preHistorisch Dorp (NL) and Butser Ancient Farm (UK). There is also a book review of Experimental Archaeology: Reconstruction of Material Heritage of Lithuania, Volume II by Daiva Luchtaniene (ed) written by Paul Wright. And finally there are two articles about EXARC’s current EU project “RETOLD”; Craft Documentation – as Part of the RETOLD Project by George Tomegea, and Experiences in a Local Museum with Digital Documentation – The Stone Age Park Dithmarschen in Albersdorf (Germany) as a RETOLD Partner written by Rüdiger Kelm and Roeland Paardekooper. (If, by the way, you are interested in finding out more about the RETOLD project, you can find information on our website, and there is also currently a new RETOLD website being built. You can also register for our upcoming conference in September on Digitalisation in Open-Air Museums and Reconstructions. All details can be found on the EXARC website.)

So, that’s it for this edition, a really interesting range of studies and experiments in this one! If you have been inspired by these articles and would like to discuss them further, please do come and join the EXARC discord server. It’s open to both members and non-members, and is completely free to join. I look forward to seeing you there! 

This was EXARC Extracts. If you want to find out more about the research mentioned in this episode, check out the latest edition of the EXARC Journal, which can be accessed online at exarc.net/ journal.