The Future of Experimentation: From experiment to new archaeological knowledge

The experiment as a prerequisite for progressive archaeological practice

Stefanie Langaa, SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen

Progressive: ‘Progressive; thinking in a new, original and forward-looking way‘
– The Danish Dictionary [accessed 11.01.2024].

Based on my thesis and my current research, I will present some, perhaps, different ways of working with experimental archaeology, where the ‘experiment’ is based on the investigation of the limits of archaeological practice. With this presentation, I want to open up for discussion about whether archaeological knowledge formation can benefit from a devotion to the experimental process; to slowness; to getting lost; to uncertainty; to mistakes; and not least to open realizations.

Experimental archaeology has interested me since I was introduced to the subject as an archaeology student. I recognize the intent of controlled and/or contextual experiments, where evidence and an overall positivist approach to method and theory is centered around the construction of explanatory and interpretive models. However, I would like to challenge the way we perceive the concept of ‘experimental archaeology’ by asking: Doesn’t all progression in archaeological practice require a certain grounding in the experiment?

Continuity, change and future experiments:
two full-scale reconstructions of the ship find, Skuldelev 3

Tríona Sørensen, Martin Rodevad Dael and Søren Nielsen, Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde

The presentation will present the museum’s work with two reconstructions of the same ship find, focusing on the development that has taken place in our methodological approach to the reconstruction work. This development is reflected in the similarities and differences between the two versions of Skuldelev 3, and forms the basis for future exploration of the ship’s sailing characteristics, function and cultural-historical context.
In 1984, the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde’s first full-scale reconstruction of a Viking ship was launched. ROAR EGE, as the ship was christened, was a reconstruction of the ship find Skuldelev 3, and was the starting point for the subsequent 40 years of experimental archaeological work to build sailing reconstructions of all five Skuldelev ships.
After 32 years of service on the water and many miles under the keel, ROAR EGE finally went ashore in 2016. The following year, the keel was laid for a new reconstruction of Skuldelev 3 and a new project – Reunion with Skuldelev 3 – began at the museum’s boatyard. The result of this project, ESTRID BYRDING, was launched in 2022.

Interdisciplinary collaboration in experimental archaeology – from a craftsman’s point of view

Lucas Garbrecht Overvad, Lejre Land of Legends

Recreating archaeological objects and understanding the processes of their creation, function and life can require a level of craftsmanship and material understanding to be brought into play as part of experimental archaeological investigations.
Sometimes this will be entirely up to the archaeologist if the material or craft no longer exists, or if the archaeologist themselves have the necessary skills.

However, if this is not the case, the experimental archaeologist may choose to ally with one or more people who, with a background in a given craft, can contribute with craftsmanship expertise.

My presentation aims to explore, based on my own practical experience, the following questions:

• What benefits can this cross-disciplinary collaboration have?
• Are there opportunities to strengthen these collaborations between archaeologists and craftsmen even more in the future?
• What does it mean if the craftsman has no knowledge of archaeology, has knowledge of archaeology or if the craftsman is an archaeologist himself?
• How can craftsmen benefit from experimental archaeology?
• What methodological pitfalls will there be for both the craftsman and the archaeologist?

The Viking harp – a reconstruction journey

Maria Ojantakanen, Viking Village in Albertslund

In 1998, volunteer Viggo Bach Nielsen built the Viking Village’s first lyre as a take on the Viking harp.
But when it came to using the instrument for educational purposes, it turned out that the reconstruction based on archaeological finds was only the start of a long series of professional questions – a series whose end has not yet been reached, 26 years later.

It has also been an exercise in retracing our own steps and discovering and questioning our own practices. For example, the sound depends on the material and tuning of the strings – and each is dependent on technical solutions in the reconstruction of the instrument itself.

Similarly, the technical possibilities of playing the lyre depend on the tuning and tonal capacity of the instrument. Each choice is based on assumptions that are also based on assumptions, often so intuitive that they go unnoticed. The hypothesis should not be lost – otherwise it risks directly controlling the course of the experiment.

The past in motion

Sofie Louise Andersen, SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen

Human movement is the most basic and fundamental part of any production process, but observed and documented movement in traditional crafts, based on experimental archaeology, has received very little, if any, attention in archaeological research.

A proposed strategy to gain future insight into the impact and importance of motion in a traditional production process is to use Motion Capture (MoCap) to record the movement of a craftsman’s work processes in such work.

The test results show that MoCap has great potential in archaeology and can be used in several different contexts, both to understand the basic movements by studying the recordings, to compare movements between craftsmen with different knowledge and experience, but also to calculate a potential risk of joint diseases in a work environment.

A plant comes into being

Camilla Fraas Rasmussen and Sofie Nielsen, SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen

In our presentation, we talk about the process behind the reconstruction of a first oil plant; both our start-up, finding material, but also the collaboration along the way, the joint registration and finally our post-work, which consisted of data processing and writing a report.

The presentation has a reflective tone and we address both answers and unanswered questions.

• What does the firstolpe system that will be built look like?
• How do you register without a fixed roadmap?
• How do you handle data sets that oscillate between qualitative and quantitative data collection?

The presentation will unfold these questions.

We will share our experiences with audience engagement and dissemination. We will reflect on our registration methods and the process of learning by doing.

We will also discuss the importance of standardization during registration, as we were later involved in data processing. Finally, we will present the second part of the project and what we will do differently.

With open minds and deep professionalism

Henriette Lyngstrøm, SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen

In the years between 1992 and 2014, I conducted several experiments on the extraction and forging of bog iron.

The experiments differ from other experiments in the field by being conducted in a close dialog between archaeologist, metallurgist and blacksmith, and by covering the entire process from the ant ore was dug out of the ground until the finished tool lay on the anvil.

The experiments are well documented both in terms of the choice and use of materials and in terms of the analysis of iron and slag.

In the presentation, I examine how the experimental dynamics developed over the years, what methodological limitations and potentials I saw and, not least, what lessons I took with me in the subsequent experiments with painting, hollow belts and peat cutting.

It is a presentation that argues that we maintain a deep professionalism in the experimental work with open senses.

The attack on Lethra: An experiment on how space affects combat

Gustav Hejlesen Solberg, Trelleborg, National Museum of Denmark

At Easter 2023, the Iron Age village of Lethra in Lejre Land of Legends was attacked. The inhabitants of the fortified town took up arms and defended their home. But how did they do it?

This paper is centered around some battle archaeology experiments conducted at Lejre Land of Legends’ reconstruction of an Iron Age fence.

Experiments showed how the construction of the fence affected the participants and the battle as a Battlescape.

Practical experiments with relatively unstructured battles allowed the participants to explore the defensive qualities of the defense, which provides an interesting insight into how a given space affects combat.

Macrofractures as a diagnostic tool

Alexander Grove Lauridsen, SAXO Institute; University of Copenhagen

This presentation will cover the experimental archaeological aspect of my bachelor project (A fractured past: an experimental study of late Neolithic barbed arrowheads) from January 2023.

The work is based on a wondering about the significant presence of arrowheads from the period, with visible macrofratures. This puzzlement provided the basis for conducting an experimental program based on a hypothetical framework proposed by Karl Hutchings in 2011 regarding diagnostic fracture markers.

The aim was to investigate the possibility of establishing diagnostic fracture markers on Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age long-lobed flat-headed arrowheads.

This was done in order to deduce the material that the arrowhead has penetrated or collided with, and to investigate the possibility of sorting arrowheads with use fractures from arrowheads with fractures caused by various post-depositional circumstances, based on visible diagnostic markers.

The presentation will primarily relate to the work process, results, as well as observations and questions.

Did changes in cooking vessels and hearths during the period 700-1500 lead to changes in food culture during the same period?

Daniel Serra and Kari Helland, Midgard Viking Center, Vestfoldmuseene

Based on a long experience of cooking experiments based on experience and empirical data, we now want to investigate how changing conditions in the form of new forms of fireplaces and new forms of pots affect the food you cook, and how this can be linked to social changes/expressions.

How do vessels, hearths and the social contexts of food affect how food is prepared and composed during the period 700-1500 in Scandinavia?

During the period from the Migration Period to the Renaissance, food culture underwent some major changes, which also meant that the design of fireplaces and ceramics changed.

Light on the lamps of the Viking Age

Karl Jakob Lamberth, Viking Village in Albertslund

Funnel-shaped glasses have been found in several Viking Age graves, and traditionally they have always been interpreted as magnificent drinking glasses.

They are without a foot, and history often tells us that they were intended for mead or rare imported wine – but they had to be drunk out because you can’t put them down.

But what if these glasses could serve another purpose? I have experimented with using replicas of the funnel-shaped glasses for oil lamps.

My experiments have included making wicks and methods of attaching them to the glass.

I have researched what oils were available in Denmark around the year 1000, as well as possible imported oils.

In addition, I have carried out experiments with the suspension of the glass and of course the efficiency of the burning of different oils.

Many possibilities open up for further investigation – studying more suspension finds, looking at alternative oil types, and refining methods and materials for making wicks.

The Viking Age glass story gets new chapters in the quest for enlightenment.

SKI ARCHAEOLOGY, from process trials to a technological family tree for an elusive
but universal artifact

Laurent Mazet, Lejre Land of Legends

Land mobility in subarctic North Eurasia, Siberia, North America & Greenland is well established from the Oldest Stone Age to the youngest Viking Age.

Starting from a holistic ‘genuinely naive and inventive shale-making experience’, we report here on an experimental phylogenetic methodology applied to a uniform, materially simple but procedurally complex artifact through time & space.

We examine the predetermined operative process of the ski – chaine opératoire – from the selection of the wood to the design of the bent and foot-bound planks for their displacement capabilities.

• From there, can the series of bipolar choices of the manufacturing process be extrapolated to a technological family tree?
• Can the branches diachronically connect archaeological specimens with ethnographic examples, independent of chronology and tool typology?
• Can processual intermediate pieces possibly be highlighted as cultural missing links and potential finds?
• Can adaptive traditions and technological affinities with other means of transportation before and since the advent of the wheel be pointed out geographically?
• Finally, the necessary experimental ski archaeology can shed light on paleogenetic migrations in prehistoric Eurasia, and beyond, be used as a method for the pedigree of other ephemeral universal artifacts: the bow, the shoe, food dishes, etc.

Archaeology in practice: Reconstructing a Greenlandic dog sledge

Emma Vitale, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen

The dog sled was one of the most important means of transportation in prehistoric Greenland and was central to the spread of pre-Inuit culture across the North American Arctic.

Yet we know little about the technology behind the different types of dog sleds.

As part of my research, I spent a spring season in the West Greenlandic town of Sisimiut reconstructing a 1930s dogsled and test-driving it with a team of sled dogs to explore the relationship between knowledge and technical practice.

Because it’s only when you’ve built an object yourself that you notice all the details.

But what can we do with these new insights? Well, perhaps we can eventually make something invisible visible.

The practical knowledge gained from building a sled yourself can be used to identify potential dog sled parts in the often very fragmented archaeological finds in Greenland.

Archaeologically, material culture is of great importance, and these objects help uncover the social patterns and practices of the past.

The use of house reconstructions in the identification of archaeological house timber

Magnus Hjorth Jørgensen, The National Museum of Denmark

Is it possible to use reconstructions of houses whose roof structure has no archaeological model in the identification of recycled archaeological building timber?

Due to the preservation conditions, our knowledge of the roof structure of the three-nave longhouse is minimal.

Based on the timber found under a paved road from the site Varpelevvej II, I will in this presentation, based on new 3D scans and dating, discuss whether the timber is reused.

Furthermore, I will discuss the possible use and location of the reused timber in relation to the three-nave longhouse, based on the identification of a possible right strap and crossbeam in the timber from Varpelevvej II.

This is done through a comparative analysis of the reconstructed longhouse, house 17 from Sagnlandet Lejre, built in 1989 by Bente Draiby et al.

Production of gut thread for use in the sewing of a leather cloak

Lone Blom Kristensen and Nanna Kirkeby, Vingsted Iron Age, Vejlemuseerne

In connection with an addition to the Culture Museum’s exhibition on the Harold Archduchess, a reconstruction of part of her very well-preserved leather cloak was made in the fall of 2023.

The reconstructed piece of the cape is approximately 20×30 cm and is an example of the different stitching techniques used both for reinforcing the edge and for stitching the individual pieces of skin together.

For this purpose, experiments were made with the production and use of lamb gut as sewing thread.

In the presentation, we will discuss the different processes – scraping, spinning and tensioning – in the production of the gut thread and the experiments with the sewing of the different stitches.

This experiment also highlights the relevance of the experimental approach to archaeological science, where craft and archaeology meet.