Cunningham (eds) Cunningham and Hurcombe THE LIFE CYCLE OF STRUCTURES IN EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY The focus of Archaeological Open-Air Museums (AOAMs) is to present both the tangible and intangible past to the public. The tangible parts of AOAMs are the archaeological remains and the reconstructions. The intangible and, in some respects the most interesting part of an AOAM, is the story of the people the THE LIFE CYCLE OF STRUCTURES IN STRUCTURES OF CYCLE LIFE THE museum represents. This volume explores the research and visitor agendas of structures and their life cycles as they are experienced ARCHAEOLOGY EXPERIMENTAL by experimental archaeology projects and AOAMs. The papers presented include research undertaken by both academics and craft specialists and demonstrate the value of experiential and experimental research to enhance both the visitor experience and research agendas. The papers were brought together as part of the OpenArch Project’s Dialogue with Science Work Package. OpenArch THE LIFE CYCLE is a five year project with eleven international partners funded with support from the European Commission. OF STRUCTURES IN Structures include houses, boats, forges, and other diverse constructions. The structures are not static entities but change EXPERIMENTAL through time going through a life cycle. Key themes are the birth, life and death of structures. To explore these key themes papers in this BIOGRAPHY APPROACH OBJECT AN volume consider the planning phase, the assembling of materials, ARCHAEOLOGY the construction period and then the maintenance and repair needs and the change of use of structures as they age. For some structures AN OBJECT BIOGRAPHY APPROACH this also includes issues surrounding decay, dilapidation, dismantling and destruction of these experimental structures. Understanding of these biographies not only contribute to our understanding edited by of the archaeological record they also enable a consideration of the intangible aspects of structures whilst enhancing the visitor Linda Hurcombe and experience. Penny Cunningham ISBNSidestone 978-90-8890-365-6 Press Sidestone ISBN: 978-90-8890-365-6 9 789088 903656 This is an Open Access publication. Visit our website for more OA publication, to read any of our books for free online, or to buy them in print or PDF. www.sidestone.com Check out some of our latest publications: THE LIFE CYCLE OF STRUCTURES IN EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY Sidestone Press THE LIFE CYCLE OF STRUCTURES IN EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY AN OBJECT BIOGRAPHY APPROACH edited by Linda Hurcombe and Penny Cunningham © 2016 Individual Authors Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Imprint: Sidestone Press Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone Press Photographs cover: Reconstructed Uimaranta house, Saarijärvi Stone Age Village (Finland) by Eero Muurimäki; Thatching using reeds, Kierikki Stone Age Village (Finland) by Inga Nieminen; Hut rebuilding, Pietraperzia, Enna, (Sicily, Italy) by Kati Caruso & Claudia Speciale; Thatching using reeds Kierikki Stone Age Centre (Finland) by Inga Nieminen; The Main House, after its collapse in 2009, Irish National Heritage Park, Ferrycarrig, Co. Wexford (Ireland) by Tríona Sørensen. ISBN 978-90-8890-365-6 (softcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-389-2 (hardcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-366-3 (PDF e-book) This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, the commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Contents List of Figures, Graphs and Tables 7 Preface 11 Linda Hurcombe, Penny Cunningham, Leena Lethinen 1. An introduction to the life cycle and object biography approach to 15 structures in experimental archaeology Linda Hurcombe and Penny Cunningham PLANNING STRUCTURES 2. Hands on Heritage 37 Experimental and experiential archaeology in the Avalon Marshes, Somerset, UK Richard Brunning 3. “U Pagliaru” 49 Studies of traditional shepherd’s huts and their relevance to a Bronze Age hut-rebuilding project in Sicily Kati Caruso and Claudia Speciale THINKING THROUGH STRUCTURES 4. Plant materials, hides and skins as structural components 59 Perishable material culture and archaeological invisibility Linda Hurcombe and Theresa Emmerich Kamper 5. Saving it for later 77 Gathering, processing and food storage structures Penny Cunningham 6. Boats as structures: an overview 89 Linda Hurcombe and Brian Cumby 7. Experiments on possible Stone Age glue types 115 Werner Pfeifer and Marco Claußen CONSTRUCTION 8. Experiences of thatching at Kierikki Stone Age Village, Finland 131 Inga Nieminen 9. A gateway to the Bronze Age 141 Experimenting with woodworking methods of the Terramara culture in Montale in Italy Wolfgang F.A. Lobisser 10. “From Earth I Rose” 151 Experimenting with stone box furnaces of the Finnish Early Iron Age Joni Karjalainen and Juuso Vattulainen 11. [...] quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris” (Genesis, 3: 19) 163 Experimental production of Iberian iron and post-processing approach to the furnace structures José Miguel Gallego Cañamero, Manel Gómez Gutiérrez and Josep Pou i Vallès 12. ‘Huize Horsterwold’ 177 The reconstruction of a Neolithic houseplan using Stone Age equipment Annelou van Gijn and Diederik Pomstra STRUCTURES IN LIFE 13. Testing the indoor environment and personal health in an 189 inhabited reconstructed Viking Age house during winter Jannie Marie Christensen 14. Experiences concerning Stone Age building constructions in 201 Finland Eero Muurimäki DECLINE OF STRUCTURES 15. Blackhand Kiva 213 Biography of a replica ancestral Pueblo subterranean masonry-lined structure, Montezuma County, Colorado, USA Bruce Bradley 16. The day the house sat down 225 The deterioration and collapse of the Ferrycarrig roundhouses Tríona Sørensen List of Figures, Graphs and Tables Preface: Brian Cumby making a logboat at Kierikki Stone Age Centre, Finland, 2013. Figure 1.1: ‘Construction as performance’: Brian Cumby working on the Bronze Age boat Morgawr in full public view. Figure 1.2: Example of how reasoned annotations might be useful features of reconstructed buildings based on a reconstruction. Figure 1.3: The wooden amphitheatre on modern stone foundations and the amphitheatre in use during a production of Aida. Figure 1.4: One of the new houses at Hunebedcentrum. Figure 1.5: One of the many streets at Foteviken. Figure 1.6: The clay roof tops of Calafell with the collapsed roof in the background. Figure 1.7: A reaper binder cutting spelt to be used as thatch and Bryn Eryr partially thatched with spelt. Figure 2.1: Reconstruction of the Sweet Track by E. Mortlemans. Figure 2.2: 1997 reconstruction of the Sweet Track in a reedbed in Shapwick Heath NNR. Figure 2.3: The discovery of the Shapwick canoe in 1906. Figure 2.4: The original roundhouse at the Peat Moors Centre. Figure 2.5: The original roundhouse at the Peat Moors Centre a year after its collapse began. Figure 3.1: Madonie Mountains, Pizzo Carbonara, Sicily, Italy. Figure 3.2: Pagliaru in Piano Pomieri. Figure 3.3: Pagliaru in c.da Colombo. Figure 3.4: Twins Nicolosi helping in the hut rebuilding project. Figure 3.5: Hut rebuilding, Pietraperzia, Enna, Sicily, Italy. Table 4.1: Skin processing terminology. Figure 4.1: The new Mesolithic hut being built at Archeon, November 2015. Figure 4.2: Small birch bark house at Oerlinghausen Museum, Germany. Figure 4.3: Daylight shining through a window made from rawhide in one of Archeon’s Stone Age houses. Figure 4.4: A gable end with an adjustable smoke flap made from skin in Archeon’s Stone Age area. Figure 4.5: A section of mosaic roof from one of the ATC’s temporary Neolithic hut structures. Figure 5.1: Three pits from Puddlehill. Table 5.1: Roasting experiments: July and Nov-Dec 2006. Figure 5.2: Roasting method 1: Hot rocks placed on top of hazelnuts. Figure 5.3: Roasting method 2: Hazelnuts in a shallow pit. Figure 5.4: Roasted acorns in shallow storage pit. Figure 6.1: Morgawr on launch day. Figure 6.2: Checking the lines and fit of the boat by eye. Figure 6.3: Experiments at Kierikki. Table 6.1: The scoring system for the qualitative assessment of each tool’s effectiveness. Table 6.2: Participant evaluations of the effectiveness of tools on fresh wood, fresh charred wood, and ‘fire dried wood. Figure 6.4: Experiments at AÖZA. Figure 7.1: Diagrams to show the ‘open’ distillation and ‘closed’ distillation arrangements. Figure 7.2: The ‘open distillation’ method. Figure 7.3: The ‘closed distillation’ method, with Marco. Figure 7.4: Turning tar to pitch without pots. Figure 7.5: The wood turned into fine charcoal. Figure 7.6: Bluebell glue. Figure 8.1: Older Stone Age house constructions in Kierikki. Figure 8.2: First layers of the reed were put on the scaffold. Figure 8.3: The reeds were worked into their final position by using a serrated board. Figure 8.4: Walls from the inside. Twisted birch branches holding the wood strips on top of each layer of reed. Figure 8.5: The first two thatched roof houses at Kierikki Stone Age Village. list of figures, graphs and tables 7 Figure 9.1: A photograph from the excavation at Terramara di Castione Marchesi from 1877. Figure 9.2: Some of the replicated tools we used made from bronze: flanged axes, adze, dividers, dagger, chisels and awl. Figure 9.3: The heavy bronze axes were hafted onto naturally grown angular wood handles. Figure 9.4: Five people were needed to position one of our gate leaves. Figure 9.5: 2006 VIAS employees reconstructed a part of the Terramare Bronze Age fortification in Montale in Italy. Figure 10.1: Map showing the locations of stone box furnaces in Finland. Table 10.1: Stone box furnaces. Table 10.2: The smelting experiments. Figure 10.2: The furnace from Kotijänkä, Sierijärvi, Rovaniemi, as it is today in the National Museum of Finland Figure 10.3: Our furnace with the stones and slag pit in place.