The EXARC Show (Archive)

Trekking with Stone Age equipment through snow and icy winds in Sweden last February, Markus Klek - a self-proclaimed 'north nerd' - discovered that nature is a factor that can only be ignored at one's own peril. Nevertheless, this challenging experience offered him another opportunity to test his tools and equipment and find out how they can be tweaked to better withstand the elements on future trips. Jess Shaw is your host.

Exciting news! Markus' plans for a new experiential prehistory event this winter are getting concrete and this time a small number of participants can take part. Read more about Markus' Nordic Winter Camp that will take place in February 2026.

-> Also interesting: in 2024 Matilda Siebrecht chatted with Markus about his earlier experiences: Nordic Walkabout: Q&A beforehand and Nordic Walkabout: Follow-up discussion.

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Listen in this month to hear all about archaeology in Brazil, as we get ready for the upcoming EAC14 conference, which will be held later this month at the Federal University of Paraná from the 12th – 16th May.

We are joined by a very special guest, João Carlos Moreno de Sousa. João, also known as JuCa, is an Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Federal University of Rio Grande, and at the Federal University of Paraná, both in Brazil. He is also head of the Laboratory for Evolutionary and Experimental Archaeology and Prehistory. JuCa is also one of the primary organisers of the upcoming EAC14 conference. In this episode, we hear more about JuCa’s work, how archaeology and heritage work can be used to bridge the gaps between past and present communities, and about the history of archaeology in Brazil more broadly.

If you’ve found this interesting, we hope to see you at the upcoming hybrid EAC14 conference! We have a fantastic programme planned this year, with experimental archaeology in South America playing a big role in the conference, as well as broader sessions on lithics, rock art, bone, wood, textiles and ceramics. Keynote speakers are Prof. Dr. Hugo Nami from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and Prof. Dr. Alex Martire from the Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil.

We hope you enjoy this month’s episode of EXARC Encounters, and join us either online or in person at EAC14!

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In this episode of EXARC Extracts, Matilda Siebrecht reads through the articles in issue 2025/1 of the EXARC Journal, sharing her insights and reactions to the amazing range of research shared within.

This year's first issue of the EXARC Journal includes thirteen reviewed articles and four matters articles. As always, the articles cover a very wide range of topics. All the articles are open access to allow for free exchange of information and further development of our knowledge of the past. 

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This episode of EXARC Showcase highlights not one but two projects EXARC members are currently involved in. Matilda Siebrecht presents this varied episode.

The first project is NFDI4Objects, a multidisciplinary consortium within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). Its aim is to create an easy template to help experimenters structure their experiments and to ensure consistency and comparability between different experiments. To achieve this a workflow tool is developed that allows experimenters to build a visual representation of their experimental design. Ivan Calandra (DE) is co-chair of NFDI4Objects community cluster Experimental Archaeology. See also the article in the EXARC Journal 2025-1. Roeland Paardekooper, founder of EXARC, explains how NFDI4Objects relates to the RETOLD project.

Ilse Donker (NL), re-enactor, forage guide and educator is a participant in The Wildbiome Project. This project seeks to understand what happens to the gut microbiome when you survive by foraging and eating wild food only. It will assess the impact on microbiome composition and key health parameters of people eating an exclusively wild food diet. Participants will do so for one or three months. Ilse talks about her motivation, preparation and expectations taking part in the project. She also discusses her ideas about foraging, reenactment and how looking closely at the way people lived in the past could improve our health and happiness.

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In this episode of EXARC Showcase John Kiernan shares his wide range of experience, knowledge and interests, hopscotching across various engaging topics. He shares how he became an experimental archaeologist, explores the differences between experimental and experiential archaeology, his reason for starting The EXARC Experimental Archaeology Award, the pros and cons of re-enactment and how failure is a good thing.

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In this #FinallyFriday episode, host Matilda Siebrecht dives into the world of folklore with guests Colleen Deatherage and Ieva Pīgozne. Colleen, from the University of Alberta, combines her background in healthcare and social work with her expertise as a folklorist to explore how folklore aids in meaning-making, especially through material culture like textiles. Ieva, based at the Institute of Latvian History, is a dress historian whose work bridges archaeology and cultural anthropology to uncover the social and symbolic meanings of traditional dress and folklore.

The guests explore the complexities of interpreting folklore, noting how historical biases and modern politics shape its study. Ieva warns of folklore’s misuse in nationalist agendas, while Colleen highlights the need for caution in collecting and analyzing folklore to ensure respectful and accurate representation. They discuss overlaps with disciplines like archaeology and anthropology, underscoring folklore’s role in giving voice to marginalized histories.

Both share compelling examples: Ieva recounts insights gained from reenactment projects and folklore texts explaining archaeological anomalies, while Colleen describes using historical textiles to support patients’ legacy-making in modern healthcare. Their projects reflect the versatility of folklore in understanding human experiences across time.

This episode concludes the #FinallyFriday podcast series. The podcast’s format will evolve, but it remains a vital platform for exploring cultural heritage.

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This year's final issue of the EXARC Journal includes eight reviewed articles and six unreviewed mixed matters articles. The research topics range from ethnographic approaches to studying Iron Age bread ovens, reconstructions of Victorian clothing, and Neanderthal fire technology. 

In this special extended episode of EXARC Extracts, Matilda Siebrecht reads through the articles in issue 2024/4 of the journal, sharing her insights and reactions to the incredible range of research shared within.

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Blingy, fashionable or personal. Jewellery has been an integral element of identity for thousands of years. Despite this, historic and archaeological examples of these items of adornment have often been understudied and misunderstood. This month we are joined by two guests who are intent on changing this, aiming to highlight the true beauty of jewellery in a wider context. Listen in to hear all about the similarities and differences between studying historic and archaeological jewellery and how to start moving towards seeing these objects as craft items which can tell us their own fascinating stories.

Tess Machling is an archaeologist and independent researcher looking at Prehistoric and Iron Age gold from a craft perspective. Tess is now at the forefront of a project called The Big Book of Torcs, which aims to explore the techniques, manufacture and craft required to create British Iron Age Torcs. The project involves a number of people from a variety of backgrounds, including goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers, archaeologists and heritage specialists.

Sigrid van Roode is an archaeologist and jewellery historian. Originally trained as an Egyptologist, her PhD research examined 19 th Century Egyptian jewellery. With 30 years of experience in jewellery research, Sigrid’s goal is now to preserve and share the information associated with items of adornment from North Africa and the Middle East. She also works as a jewellery consultant and runs the website Bedouin Silver, which contains blogs, e-books and online courses.

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When we talk about documentation, digitalisation and restoration we usually assume that the sites where this takes place are accessible and safe, like in an open-air museum. However, there is a category of conservation specialists who, on a daily basis, are dealing with a range of challenges when they work in remote and/or dangerous areas. In this episode two heritage preservation experts talk about what drives them and how they address the perils their teams face in places like Iraq, Mozambique or Angola. 

Stefano Campana is Professor of Landscape Archaeology at the University of Siena, specialising in documentation and remote sensing. He is the co-founder of Archeo Tech & Survey, a spin-off company from the University of Siena, which specialises in archaeology, remote sensing and geomatics. Giovanni Fontana Antonelli is an architect and landscape planner who devoted two decades of his work to the safeguarding of cultural heritage in the Arab world. He is the co-founder of Archi.Media Trust, a non profit organisation focussing on cultural heritage preservation and cultural development.

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The 2024/3 EXARC Journal brings you five 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.

This time two of the reviewed articles come from the UK and one a piece from Greece, Norway and the United States. Each of the articles tackles a different topic. John Whittaker and Mary Jane Berman used microlithic flakes as teeth in a wooden grater to better understand the archaeological evidence of such teeth and also the processing of manioc. Sally Pointer’s project looked into the earliest soapmaking. Georgia Kordatzaki’s study assessed the impact of firing on burnished ceramic surfaces. Andrew Fitches and Ben Elliott’s article studies Mesolithic drilling methods and is based on a series of experiments, in which different techniques were used to drill holes in red deer antler. Antoinette Olsen tested a possibility of weaving eight end satin with five rods on a warp-weighted loom.

In the mixed matters section John Hill introduces the Nesshenge project, there is a review of Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa, Jahrbuch 2023.reports from the EAA Conference in Belfast in September 2023 and from the seminar: The Future of Experimentation – from experiment to new archaeological knowledge in Lejre Land of Legends in March 2024.An article on the RETOLD project from Museumsdorf Düppel talks about standardizing documentation of archaeological house reconstructions.

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