Academics

The Difference Between Academic & Living Historians

For someone who is curious about the world of living history, one aspect that is sometimes overlooked is the role that the history, the customs, and the manners of a particular time period play. It is easy enough to play dress up, but to truly learn about the time period one must get into the mindset of the time. People have not always thought the way we do now.

Quite the opposite, in fact. For example, in the 16th century common thought dictated that a sneeze was evil being expelled from the body. When someone would sneeze everyone within earshot, including the person who sneezed, would cross themselves to ward off the evil that had just left one person’s body.

Today we know that sneezes are a result of a bit of dust or allergen irritating the small hairs within the nasal cavity. However this was not known in the 1500’s.

Experimental Archeology

One aspect of research into a particular time period is called Experimental Archaeology which employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses or an interpretation, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts.

One of the main forms of experimental archaeology is the creation of copies of historical structures using only historically accurate technologies. This is sometimes known as reconstruction archaeology. However, the product of experimental archaeology is data, not the constructed item itself.

In recent years, experimental archeology has been featured in several television productions, such as BBC's "Building the Impossible" and the Discovery Channel's "Secrets of Lost Empires". On television shows, the serious scientific benefits of the techniques are somewhat lessened by imposing strict deadlines on the team.

Examples of Experimental Archeology

A good example is Butser Ancient Farm in the English county of Hampshire which is a working replica of an Iron Age farmstead where long-term experiments in prehistoric agriculture, animal husbandry and manufacturing are held to test ideas posited by archaeologists.

In Denmark, the Lejre Experimental Centre carries out even more ambitious work on such diverse topics as artificial Bronze Age and Iron Age burials, prehistoric science and stone tool manufacture in the absence of flint.

Other examples include:

  • The Kon-Tiki, a balsa raft built by Thor Heyerdahl and sailed from Peru to Polynesia to demonstrate the possibility of cultural exchange between South America and the Polynesian islands.
  • Attempts to transport large stones like those used in Stonehenge over short distances using only technology that would have been available at the time. The original stones were probably moved from Pembrokeshire to the site on Salisbury Plain.
  • Since the 1970s the re-construction of timber framed buildings has informed understanding of early Anglo Saxon buildings at West Stow, Suffolk, England. This extensive programme of research through experiment and experience continues today.
  • The reconstruction of part of Hadrian's Wall at Vindolanda, carried out in limited time by local volunteers.
  • Greek triremes have been reconstructed by skilled sailors from plans and archaeological remains and have been successfully tried out at sea.
  • Attempts to manufacture steel that matches all the characteristics of Damascus Steel, whose original manufacturing techniques have been lost for centuries.
  • Experiments in Ancient Roman Coin Minting.
  • And more!...

Variations of Experimental Archeology

Other types of experimental archaeology may involve burying modern replica artifacts and ecofacts for varying lengths of time to analyse the post-depositional effects on them. Other archaeologists have built modern earthworks and measured the effects of silting in the ditches and weathering and subsidence on the banks to understand better how ancient monuments would have looked.

The work of flintknappers is also a kind of experimental archaeology as much has been learnt about the many different types of flint tools through the hands-on approach of actually making them.

Experimental archaeologists have equipped modern professional butchers, archers and lumberjacks with replica flint tools to judge how effective they would have been for certain tasks. Use wear traces on the modern flint tools are compared to similar traces on archaeological artefacts, making probability hypotheses on the possible kind of use feasible. Hand axes have been shown to be particularly effective at cutting animal meat from the bone and jointing it.