1. Devon, Southwest Britain;
landscape of gardens, valleys and streams
1,000 academic staff and 1,800 employees
14,000 undergraduates;
2,000 postgraduate taught course students
1,500 research students
Archaeology Department
13 lecturers, 2 technicians + admin staff + project researchers
150-180 undergraduate students; c 50 research postgraduates
15-25 MA students: 5-10 Experimental Archaeology MA students

2. Experimental Archaeology Staff
• Linda Hurcombe: stone and bone tools,
usewear analysis, hideworking, basketry,
fibres and cordage, ceramics and
taphonomic processes; worked in
community and heritage archaeology and
co-investigator on boat project
• Bruce Bradley: stone and bone tools
(expert knapper), hideworking, fibres and
cordage, ceramics; worked in public
presentation and currently directing
Learning to be Human project

3. Alan Outram: fats, bone/antler tools,
taphonomic processes
Gill Juleff: archaeometallurgy, smelting and
forging iron and lost wax casting; projects in
Indian Subcontinent and Exmoor, UK
Facilities for experimental archaeology include wet and clean
labs, an experimental lab with supplies of materials and
equipment, microscopes, kiln, potter’s wheel. There are 2
outdoor areas and the university land has wild and exotic plants
and trees.

4. Build the boat with bronze age tools, oak
trees, and yew withies
Bootsbau mit bronzezeitlichen
Werkzeugen, Eichenholz und
Eibenschößlingen
Costruire la barca con strumenti dell’etá del
Bronzo, quercia e polloni di tasso
sewn plank boat
c 2000 BC
“genähtes” Boot
Barca in tavolato
“cucito”
Boat project
public experimental archaeology
National Maritime Museum Falmouth

5. Sept 2012: Sea trials – perhaps wet feet!
Testfahrt im Meer – keine Angst vor nassen Füßen!
Test di navigazione in mare – piedi bagnati?

6. Brain scans before and after learning
Gehirnscans vor und nach der Lernphase
Risonanza magnetica prima e dopo l’apprendimento
Does learning to make
tools change your brain?
Verändert
Feuersteinschlagen das
Gehirn?
Imparare a produrre uno
strumento cambia il tuo
cervello?
Learning to be Human
Flintknapping skills project

7. to compare wear traces; but what materials and what tasks?
Vergleich von Abnutzungsspuren – aber von welchen Materialien und
welchen Vorgängen?
Per confrontare i segni d’uso: ma con quali materiali e quali
obbiettivi?
Using stone tools
Verwendung von Steinwerkzeugen
Utilizzo di strumenti litici

8. Nettle (Uritica dioica) bast
2 stages of manual processing
(but no water retting)
Unusual materials
Unusual processes

9. Fine fibres without water retting

10. Working hides as place, smell, feel, and people
memories
Tasks and places
= taskscapes
Sensory worlds

11. Tanning
methods ?
brains,
fat,
smoke,
tree bark
plant
Urine
&
many more
Warmth, colour, texture, smell,
flexibility, elasticity, impermeability,
retention of qualities after wet-dry
cycle

12. impressions on pot sherds
Abdrücke von Textilien in Keramik
Impronte di tessuto su ceramica
Experiments to
replicate
impressions on pot
sherds

13. Drawn: Pottery vessel Late Neolithic
Photo: experimental “original” basket
Zeichnung: Keramikgefäß, Spätneolithikum
Foto: experimenteller Korb als Vorlage für das Gefäß
Disegno: vaso del tardo neolitico
Foto: cestino “originale” sperimentale
Archaeological ‘Copying ‘ and present day ‘reverse engineering’

14. Touching the past
project
Facsimiles
laser scans, then
3D prints near originals
‘authenticity’ transfer

15. From enclosed display of original in National Museum
to reconstruction copy on open display in local museum,
Orkney
to enlivened object
‘seen’ textures, drape,
and movement via
clips of making and
wearing
Enlivened object
delivered via url code to
smart phone or ipad