Ancient Technology

Fresco Mixtures with Dried Lime Plaster: Cameron’s Experiments Revisited

Author(s)
Αntonis Vlavogilakis 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/2

Introduction

During the Bronze Age, the craftspeople of the eastern Mediterranean practiced a form of reuse or recycling: fragments of mortar were used as aggregates in lime mixtures intended for walls or floors (Shaw, 1973, p.222; Brysbaert, 2003, pp.168-173, pp.175-176; Jones, 2005, p.220; Brysbaert, 2008, p.118). Such a mixture was found in a house in the Akrotiri settlement of Santorini, in a part of the wall that was intended to be painted (Jones, 2005, p.220).

The Career of an Orange Stone

Author(s)
Irena Podolska 1,
Wojciech Rutkowski 1,2 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/2
The analysis of archaeological works of art involves their formal, thematic and interpretative description. The importance of these stages rests in their potential to reveal the biography of an artefact. Research methods investigating the production technology behind an object are a valuable factor extending the field of interpretation of a given object. Each finished work is the result of a creative process...

A Discussion on the Position of Weaving in the Society of Prehistoric Britain

Author(s)
Helen Poulter 1,2 ✉,
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/2
There have been several recent experiments on using warp-weighted looms in Demark, Italy and Greece, some in Roman houses (Andersson Strand, 2015; Dimova, 2016). The experiments, in particular those in Denmark and Netherlands, took place in the typical rectangular longhouses used in their respective prehistories, unlike 'Britain's predominant roundhouses...

The Ancient Magic of Malt: Making Malt Sugars and Ale from Grain Using Traditional Techniques

Author(s)
Merryn Dineley 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/2
The transformation of grain into malt, malt sugars and ale is a three step process. First, the controlled germination (malting), then ‘mashing in’ and collecting a sweet liquid known as wort and finally, the fermentation by pitching the yeast which converts the sugary wort into an alcoholic beverage. Each step requires different conditions for the process to work. They cannot be combined...

Just how practical is it to Move a Warp-weighted Loom from between the Interior and Exterior of a Roundhouse?

Author(s)
Helen Poulter 1,2 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
An experimental programme at Butser Ancient Farm run between 2015 and 2017 was to investigate weaving within a roundhouse on a warp-weighted loom. Part of these investigations was an examination into the feasibility of moving the loom in and out of the house, to take advantage of the longer daylight available in summer...

Weaving Production in Butser Ancient Farm Roundhouses in the South of England

Author(s)
Helen Poulter 1,2 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
From 2015 to 2017 a series of weaving experiments using warp-weighted looms were conducted in the roundhouses at Butser Ancient Farm. The aim was to focus on the working environment within the roundhouse and to assess any potential issues that may occur whilst weaving, including benefits. The results of the research would also assist in evaluating any seasonal patterns which cause productivity to...

The Process of Making Schist Axes of Paja Ul Deˀŋ – “The People of Big Water”

Author(s)
Alexander Akulov 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1
Paja Ul Deˀŋ [padʒaul’deˀŋ] “The People of Big Water” is a conventional and compact name given to Neolithic inhabitants of the territories of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region in their hypothetical reconstructed language (it is possible to state that these people spoke a language that was very close to Yeniseian languages). Paja Ul Deˀŋ made axes/adzes mainly of schist, a process that takes...

A Shared Warp: The Woven Belts of the Lao Han People, China

The set-up of the warp showing the threaded tablets and the positioning of the warp threads to give two open sheds for the top and bottom layers of the tabby tube. (Image: Dominique Brocard)
Author(s)
Celia Elliott-Minty 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2021/1

The renowned weaver Peter Collingwood briefly mentioned such belts in his book The Techniques of Tablet Weaving (Collingwood, 1982, pp.219-220). Not long before he died in 2008, he contributed a couple of pages on these belts to the book Minority Textile Techniques: Costumes from South-West China (Collingwood, 2007, pp.28-29). 

The Shroud of Turin and the Extra Sheds of Warping Threads. How Hard can it be to Set up a 3/1 Chevron Twill, Herringbone on a Warp-weighted Loom?

Author(s)
Antoinette Merete Olsen 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/4
On the 10 May 2020, Mr. Hugh Farey sent me an email. He introduced himself as “a researcher into the weaving of the linen cloth known as the Shroud of Turin”. Then he described the size of the Shroud and how it looked. His question to me was this: “If you had a piece of cloth as described and looked at it closely, could you tell if it was made by a warp-weighted or treadle loom, or would there be no difference?”...