Introduction This week in Experimental Archaeology, we learned about ancient Greek and Roman military tactics by recreating ancient battle equipment and army formations on the Mini Bald Spot. Before lab, we read about the different tactics of the Greek hoplites, Greek phalanxes, and Roman maniples. In a hoplite, soldiers stood close together with interlocking shields…

Morgan Dieschbourg, Dylan Fox-Arnold, and Em Jahn Introduction: This week, our class set about analyzing Cato’s description of traditional bread-making techniques in De Agricultura (a text from 165 BCE) through experimental archaeology on Carleton College’s Mai Fete Island. Specifically, we looked at six different bread-and-cheese-based recipes outlined in the text: placenta, spira, scriblita, erneum, globi,…

Ruby Becker, Kenton Nagle, Maya Gabor Introduction: This lab took place at A Woolen Forest Farm & Studio, located on 15 acres in Lonsdale, Minnesota and owned by shepherdess and wool worker Alejandra Sanchez. In the week leading up to this lab, our experimental archeology class focused our learning towards ancient dyeing practices both in…

by Bee, Ellie, and Will This week in Experimental Archaeology, we took a deep dive into Dr. Morton’s experimental research on rites done at the altar during ancient Greek religious sacrifices. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been found in the archaic cult images of a series of vase paintings. We burned bovine thigh bones…

Introduction INTRO:For our first experiment, our Experimental Archaeology class got to work turning freshly shorn wool into a piece of woven fabric. This experiment was challenging to record quantitatively, but gave us a great glimpse into the lives of women throughout much of history and the immense amount of work required to create fabric and…