Lab Summary – Page 3 – Experimental Archaeology / Experiential History

Fall 2021 Cheesemaking Lab

Introduction For this lab we set out to make four different types of cheeses as an introduction to hands-on work in experimental archaeology. We conducted our cheesemaking on Mai Fete island, where we had access to one in-the-ground fire pit alongside two above-ground pits brought from the lab in Anderson. Once we arrived at the…

Weeks 9&10 Lab Summary: Mortuary House

Astrid Malter, David Bellovin, Ellen Schlick Introduction Over the past week, the class has been working on our final lab: building a mortuary house from natural materials. Although this lab can stand alone as a unit, we would not have been able to accomplish the build without what we had learned in previous weeks. For…

Week 8: Firing Pottery: Straw, Saw Dust, & Bark

Zoe Orlin, Holland Votaw, Zachary McCrary This week in lab, we constructed fire-pit kilns in order to fire pots we had made under the guidance of ceramics professor Kelly Connole the previous week. We had spent the previous week learning about Anglo-Saxon pottery and its chaine operatoire. Specifically, the entire process that must be undertaken…

Six simple pinch pots, of different sizes and shades of brown, sit on a table.

Week 7 Lab Summary: Clay and Pottery-Making

Raine Bernhard, Andrew Fitch, MJ Fielder-Jellsey Introduction This week in ARCN 222, the focus moved from cordage and the use of plant matter for creation to pottery and the use of clay. On May 12th, 2021, the students tuned in to a Zoom class guided by Kelly Connole, professor in the Studio Art Department at…

Week 6 Lab Summary: Cordage and Baskets

Grace Brindle, Brendan Glenn, Corrah Gonzales-Lipham Introduction This week marked the transition from ARCN 222’s focus on Classical antiquity to a new subject of study: Early Medieval England. For the second half of term, students will be studying the lifestyle, beliefs, and practices of the people living on the British Isles in the wake of…

Lab Summary Week 5: Wool Working

Adam Binzak, Trina Eichel, Lucy Neumann Introduction Taking a break from data heavy experiments, on April 29th, 2021 ARCN 222 completed a series of experiential investigations into three of the main processes involved in wool production. All three experiences were taught under the guidance of Alejandra Sanchez, an expert in the preindustrial processing of natural…

Lab Summary Week 4: Ritual Fire

John Hoffman, Helen Murphy, and Sam Wege Introduction This week, our lab had two separate but related focuses. We experimentally analyzed the methodology of two rituals: 1. Greek sacrifice of bovine femurs and tails and 2. Anglo-Saxon cremation rites. The goal of the study of Greek sacrifice was to recreate an ancient practice based off…

Week 3 Lab Summary: Grain

Reed Culverwell, Eryk Jones, and Liv Patinkin Introduction While the original forecast on April 15th, 2021 in Northfield, Minnesota called for cold and rain, the ARCN 222 class was met with only wind on Mai Fete Island for our second lab of the term. Still on the topic of food, and rather optimistic from our…

Week 2 Cheesemaking Lab Summary

Intro On a blustery April afternoon, the ARCN 222 class trekked down to Mai Fete Island to engage in our very first experimental archaeology lab: making cheese. We were armed with knowledge from across centuries of cheesemaking, from early 20th century ethnographies on Greek and Albanian shepherds to food preservation techniques in ancient Egypt to…

Category: Lab Summary (page 3)