Spring26 – Experimental Archaeology / Experiential History

Students working with the horizontal saw.

Week 9 Lab Summary: Bronze Age Saws

Tara Green, Zoe Roettger, and Clark Glymph Introduction Our experiments involved testing out full scale, working models of pendulum saws, evidence of which is found in masonry remains primarily in Mycenae, during the height palatial period (1370-1190 BC). Modeled after the three types of cuts left on these masonry remains—cuts in the ground, horizontal ones,…

Week 9 Lab Data

Groups 5 and 6 worked with the Nick model, which leveraged gravity to cut a stone lying on the ground, using a bronze blade. The blade was essentially a sector of an annulus, with radius 17cm, and an arc length of 49cm and 40cm. The first stone we tried to cut was an 11cm by…

Week 9 Lab Data: Bronze Age Saws

Introduction This data report is jointly written by Claire Saunders and Caleb Valentino, and pertains to the horizontal saw. Saw Design The original saw design featured a vertical pendulum beam which would be pulled back and forth via rope. The horizontal arm had the blade on one end, and on the other a wooden brace…

Week 9 Lab Data: Bronze Age Saws

Introduction: This week we looked at saw markings from Bronze Age Greece. Our experiments involved testing out full scale, working models of pendulum saws, evidence of which is found in masonry remains primarily in Mycenae, during the height palatial period (1370-1190 BC). The questions that this data is concerned with involve the effectiveness/efficiency of the…

Week 9 Lab Data: Bronze Age Saws

Unlike the last few labs, all of the work for this lab was done on the day of and the day after. We started by bringing up one of the saws, which was incredibly unwieldy to move about due to the distribution of the weight and all the different parts. Once we had gotten the…