Sometimes a Great Notion (Icelandic Furnaces)

Q : 'Can the Hals Icelandic furnace build be re-used after three winters of weathering?

Well - kind of...

In consideration of the upcoming November 3 (Sunday) bloomery iron smelt at Wareham, Neil Peterson and I decided to return to the 2021 furnace that was a full build of the sod cone with thin clay lining as used at Hals, Iceland. This furnace had suffered considerble damage from both the extraction process and the intervention of a snapping turtle (!) after the June smelt that year. The front section was repaired and it was fired again in September. At that point major cracking resulted in the failure of the front wall section, with a wide band of loosely fused dirt in that area. (see https://warehamforgeblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/replacements-and-improvements-smelter.html )

The structure has been exposed to the weather since that point. Rain had washed loose earth into the interior and out the open front, and caused the supporting sods to slump down. Freeze and thaw had eroded the upper portions of the fused clay liner, and widened many cracks. The still mainly intact liner had slumped forward through about 25 degrees off vertical.

 The remains of the furnace, wild grasses trimmed off the sod cone. Front extraction side forward

Stick follows the line of the inner furnace surface.

Cracked and flaked away surface of the upper portions visible

Neil Peterson and I attempted to dig it clear of collapsed soil and set it back to vertical yesterday.

Not so much! The fractured liner broke into two larger and a number of smaller pieces 

Broken after our attempt to straighten the liner, the two larger pieces each about 1/4 of the original.
 

Working on the impression that will little clay available, Icelanders would attempt to keep what they had and patch it back together (??) this is what we did. 

The missing front section was replaced with on hand stone blocks, setting a ceramic tube tuyere. The previously used basalt lintel stone was set above this to support the upper blocks. From the tuyere line upwards gaps between the blocks were sealed with fresh clay.

The completed replacement for the front section, now all stone blocks.

As much as possible, remaining pieces of the fused inner liner were patched together, gaps and cracks sealed with fresh clay. The clay used is the Icelandic clay analog mix, based on samples obtained by Michelle Hayure-Smith, and suggested by team member Marcus Burnam (see https://warehamforgeblog.blogspot.com/2021/06/sticking-to-it-clay-mix-for-icelandic.html) A very rough calculation was made of the clay required = about 2.5 litres (as a plastic mix).

Image into the interior, showing the lower rear and left side surfaces. Fresh clay is dark grey.

Two wooden sticks were driven down to help support the wall pieces as they were sealed in with fresh clay. It is expected there will be further cracking between the old and new surfaces as that applied clay dries and shrinks. There should be a second repair made to ensure new cracks are sealed before firing. This was a step not taken between the previous two uses, thought to be why there was a major burn through in that earlier front wall section repair.

A circle of stone blocks was added around the top of the opening to even off the shaft. These supported by additional cut sod. As currently set, the furnace has a roughly oval interior, about 30 cm front to back and 35 cm side to side. Total shaft height is irregular at 55 - 60 cm. The tuyere is set about 15 cm above the dirt base (which could be dug lower). This creates a shaft height of 40 - 45 cm.

G

M

T

Y

Detect languageAfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAssameseAymaraAzerbaijaniBambaraBashkirBasqueBelarusianBengaliBhojpuriBosnianBulgarianCantonese (Traditional)CatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Literary)Chinese SimpChinese TradChuvashCorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDariDhivehiDogriDutchEmojiEnglishEnglish United KingdomEsperantoEstonianEweFaroeseFijianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrench (Canada)FrisianGalicianGandaGeorgianGermanGreekGuaraniGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHill MariHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIlocanoIndonesianInuinnaqtunInuktitutInuktitut (Latin)IrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKazakh (Latin)KhmerKinyarwandaKlingon (Latin)KonkaniKoreanKrioKurdish (Kurmanji)Kurdish (Sorani)KyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLingalaLithuanianLower SorbianLuxembourgishMacedonianMaithiliMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMariMeiteilon (Manipuri)MizoMongolianMongolian (Traditional)Myanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianNyanjaOdia (Oriya)OromoPapiamentoPashtoPersianPolishPortuguese (Brazil)Portuguese (Portugal)PunjabiQuechuaQuertaro OtomiRomanianRundiRussianSamoanSanskritScots GaelicSepediSerbianSerbian (Cyrillic)Serbian (Latin)SesothoSetswanaShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTagalogTahitianTajikTamilTatarTeluguThaiTibetanTigrinyaTonganTsongaTurkishTurkmenTwiUdmurtUkrainianUpper SorbianUrduUyghurUzbekUzbek (Cyrillic)VietnameseWelshXhosaYakutYiddishYorubaYucatec MayaZulu

English-------- [ All ] --------AfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAssameseAymaraAzerbaijaniBambaraBashkirBasqueBelarusianBengaliBhojpuriBosnianBulgarianCantonese (Traditional)CatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Literary)Chinese SimpChinese TradChuvashCorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDariDhivehiDogriDutchEmojiEnglishEnglish United KingdomEsperantoEstonianEweFaroeseFijianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrench (Canada)FrisianGalicianGandaGeorgianGermanGreekGuaraniGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHill MariHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIlocanoIndonesianInuinnaqtunInuktitutInuktitut (Latin)IrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKazakh (Latin)KhmerKinyarwandaKlingon (Latin)KonkaniKoreanKrioKurdish (Kurmanji)Kurdish (Sorani)KyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLingalaLithuanianLower SorbianLuxembourgishMacedonianMaithiliMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMariMeiteilon (Manipuri)MizoMongolianMongolian (Traditional)Myanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianNyanjaOdia (Oriya)OromoPapiamentoPashtoPersianPolishPortuguese (Brazil)Portuguese (Portugal)PunjabiQuechuaQuertaro OtomiRomanianRundiRussianSamoanSanskritScots GaelicSepediSerbianSerbian (Cyrillic)Serbian (Latin)SesothoSetswanaShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTagalogTahitianTajikTamilTatarTeluguThaiTibetanTigrinyaTonganTsongaTurkishTurkmenTwiUdmurtUkrainianUpper SorbianUrduUyghurUzbekUzbek (Cyrillic)VietnameseWelshXhosaYakutYiddishYorubaYucatec MayaZulu

Text-to-speech function is limited to 200 characters

Options : History : Feedback : DonateClose

'the Viking Warrior' - book review

the Viking Warrior - the Norse Raiders Who Terrorized Medieval Europe

Ben Hubbard

Amber Books - 2015

978-1-78274-291-3

I had picked this up at my last International Congress for Medieval Studies conference (2016). Honestly, the book seller had it for a very good price (think it was about $25 US) and I really only gave it a casual glance when I picked it up, part of a larger purchase.
With the recent publication date (yes, I had checked that), I had hopes for some current information.
But honestly - the second line of the title should have warned me.

Although richly illustrated (the back jacket states 'Includes more than 200 artworks, photographs and maps'), it is the source of those illustrations that becomes, frankly, annoying rather than reveilling. 'Artworks' dominate. Those illustrations are primarily Victorian era, with all the fantasy elements and distortions you would expect. Yes, there is often mention in the captions included of the major errors pictured. My guess is that these images have been selected not for clarity, but simply that, because their age, the images fall outside copyright provisions.
Many of the actual photographs in the volume are images of amature Re-Encactors, or their equipment. Obviously the quality of these re-creations can vary widely. (I really don't see how an image of modern plywood shields best illustrates actual Viking Age objects?) In some cases, the images chosen don't actually represent historic object types at all. There are some artifact images (maybe 1 in 10), but those will be well familar to even the casual observer of the Norse (mainly included from widely available 'open source' collections).
A clear key here is a check to the 'picture credits' as listed. These are almost internet based image collection services. Only a handful are from actual museum sources.

Of the 224 pages, the first third (90 pages) cover 'Viking Origins' and 'Viking Society'. It would be most accurate to say the topics are at best superficial. In a number of cases I found statements either vague, misleading - or just plain incorrect.
The bulk of the book is primarily a brief summary of the major conflict and political developments involving the Scandinavians from the first documented raids in the last years of the 700's through to the 1066 invasions in England.
The book does make consistent reference to both Saga documents and historic contemporary accounts. The pattern here however starts to look a lot more like an attempt to build credibility through the quoting of historic sources - instead of depth of recent research. The bibliography lists primarily popular level works, the volumes most of us have long had in our own libraries.

In total, I would suggest that 'the Viking Warrior' was a fast turn over work, created to cash in on recent pop culture interest in Vikings (largely generated by the recent TV series on the History Channel - with all its own massive flaws!)  At best this book is a superficial treatment of the topic. It might have proved suitable for a high school level introduction, save for the dominance of extremely dated, usually inaccurate Victorian illustrations.

Overall my recommendation would be to save the money, and put the amount towards purchase of perhaps 'the Viking World' by Graham-Campbell'.

Wareham Forge makes the News...

... as in 'ThorNews'

ThorNews describes itself as 'a supplier of Norwegian Culture' - with a very heavy load of Viking Age topics represented.

Author Thor Lanesskog had chosen to use an image of a group of replica spears I had made to help illustrate today's blog post :

The Viking Age Spears – “The Ones Who Stare from a Long Distance”

By ThorNews on October 19, 2017

" The majority of the spears are decorated with fish bone patterns, pattern forged along the middle of the blade " 

I sent back a bit of a clarification :

The 'forged pattern' is the result of welding layers of soft and hard iron metals together, then twisting and welding again, most typically to form the core part of a blade. There are some (unresolved) questions about why this method, called 'pattern welding' in archaeology, was undertaken originally. It can provide functional advantages, especially for long blades (so with swords). It may be as simple as building up a larger block when all the smith had were small pieces. The techniques were also clearly used for their decorative effects. Spears using pattern welding a very good example.
'Wolf's Tooth' actually refers to a specific effect caused by a specific method of working with the starting layered bars. I would refer you to the work of British blacksmith Owen Bush, who I know has investigated how to duplicate those specific patterns. 

DARC at Vinland - seen on ExARC!

https://exarc.net/issue-2017-4/mm/dark-ages-recreation-company-lanse-aux-meadows-nhsc-2017

Neil Peterson, with additions from DARC members Marcus, Kate and Karen, has had a very complete summary of the group's July 2107 presentation at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC published in the journal ExARC.

Abstract:

To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the historical interpretation program at L’Anse aux Meadows, NHSC, Parks Canada invested to extend their regular staff with a 10 day special program. Darrell Markewitz, the designer of the original program, and the Dark Ages Recreation Company (DARC) returned once again to this UNESCO World Heritage site to interact with the staff and public and mount displays of various craft activities.

The article details the public presentations and experimental archaeology projects carried out over the 11 day stay by a total of 14 DARC members.
Mounting such a major display, 3000 km from home base in Ontario, represents a major effort for DARC.

Next up for the group? 

Participating in the Royal Ontario Museum's presentation of 'Vikings' - a traveling exhibit from the Swedish History Museum

the Galloway Hord...

At the National Museum of Scotland - Edenburgh :

Lower groupping of arm 'rings'

Upper grouping of ingots and worked strips

Revealed in the two cases above :
- Several of the ingots were clearly made in the same top poured mould. There was a distinctive knob feature seen, from a deeper cut to one end of the mould.
- The arm rings were all considerably thicker in cross section than I previously thought. (Exact L x W x H x weight is rarely indicated.)
- Seeing the ingots and the arm rings side by side certainly suggested that the arm rings were made by simply hammering flat the ingots. The sizes of the bracelets was very uniform, and the volume of metal from ingot into ring was very consistent.
- You also can see that all of the 'rings' are in fact flattened strips - not formed into C shapes at all.
This might easily have been done to keep the package of silver small for burial. That many of the bracelets have been deliberately turned over and squished flat on one or both does suggest that all the silver, worked or ingot, was only intended as silver weight.

Pair of fine silver hinged strap orniments - considered very unusual for VA finds

These large glass pieces were described as 'beads'
The large flattened disks were roughly 3 - 4 cm in diameter, with hole diameters approaching 1 cm.
The largest, to the lower right, was almost double even that mass of glass.
Taken together, this huge size suggests to me that these might easily have been intended as spindle whorls.

Not everything from the Hord was on display. Especially most of the more 'unusual' objects (likely still under preservation work).
For more images - go to the Galloway Hord at the NMS

We have to raise £1.98 million to save the Hoard, and in addition we need  to raise additional funds to properly conserve, research and prepare the Galloway Hoard for display, (NMS web site)

 The Hoard was uncovered by a single individual, so it would fall under Scottish 'Treasure Trove' law. It appears that although technically all  such finds revert 'ownership' to the Scottish Crown, in practice, an independant pannel determines a 'market value', which museums normally pay to the original finder.


Images :
The National Museum of Scotland allows for full photography in all its galleries.
All the images above were taken by myself on August 9, 2017
Although captured as photographs, the copyright to the text panels really rests with the NMS.

Cross Posted from 'Hammered Out Bits'

Iron Smelt at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC

This is a fast report on the bloomery iron smelt undertaken by a Parks Canada team, with some assistance from DARC, on Sunday July 16, 2017 - at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC.
This was in conjunction with 'Historic Sites Day' - and in turn part of the ongoing Canada 150 events.

This is only the second time in the modern era that iron has been smelted at LAM, since Leif Eirikson and his crew undertook the process some time about 1000 AD.

This iron smelt was a very long one.

The 'smelt master' was Mark Pilgrim ('Little Ragnar'). He and I started at 7:00 am with the organization and pre-heat.
Main sequence start with ungraded charcoal at 10:45
(from here on constant bellows work by Ian / Kevin / 'Thorstien')
First ore (DD2 Analog) at 12:00
A bit of mix up there, poor communications / instruction (?) resulted
in the first charge being a full 2 kg , followed by a more normal 1 kg
amount.
Burn times ran an average of about 20 minutes each (fastest = 17 /
slowest = 29)
Total of 29 kg ore was charged, last addition at 5:36

Although the normal burn down to ready for extraction was finished at
6:45, the extraction was delayed to about 7:30 to allow the visiting
group from C-3 to assemble.
The end result of this was that the furnace interior had cooled, the
normally white hot bloom had shifted down to at best a bright orange.
This in turn resulted in great difficulty separating the bloom from
the slag bowl - and the slag bowl becoming completely frozen to the
furnace walls.
Mark undertook the extraction process, but in the end had to break the
furnace apart to free the mass.

Top of Bloom - showing 'scoop' from air blast.

The end result was a 5.5 kg bloom. Yield = 19 %

This is still a bit lacy on the outside, due to initial compaction
being undertaken well below the normal welding heat. Still the bloom
looks and feels quite solid under the hammer. This a marked contrast
to the crumbly texture of the 2010 results.

Cut (and broken) along the mid line. Top 'half' is to left.

Impressive work by all involved!

Activities for Young Norse - One

1a. Activities for 5 years olds
    Posted by:  rosie5823 to the Norsefolk discussion group
    Date: Tue Feb 25, 2014 2:19 pm ((PST))

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what activities would be suitable (and safe) for 5 years old boys to do whilst in costume?

DARC has had a fair amount of experience with public demonstrations. We 
centre on daily life and the craftsman, and also are using both full 
role playing (floating interpretive level presentation of characters and viewpoints), and fairly high authenticity standards. 

Kadja & Unn - Norstead 2000

One of the single most engrossing activities for younger visitors has related to water. We are well equipped with cooperage. A major task in any 'working' day is hauling water, for which we have a couple of yokes and lots of buckets and pails.


One of our team interprets the character of a 'household slave', and she undertakes a number of tasks related to this every presentation day. Gathering a bunch of kids to 'help' bring water from source back into camp always works well. We have a number of both pails and buckets with wooden lids that keeps water in the container, rather than on the carrier.

Volunteer Helper - L'Anse aux Meadows 2010

Related to that is washing up. We have a large tub especially for this. Three primary tasks : washing the dishes after meals, washing selected clothing, washing fleece as part of the textile preparation series.

Kadja - L'Anse aux Meadows 2012

Kids love to play in water - and the whole series of getting the water, doing the task, dumping the waste water - all re-enforces how much raw labour is required for the simplest task.

There are images related to all this on the DARC web site. Check the various museum presentation descriptions, especially at L'Anse aux Meadows for Parks Canada.

First image - Darrell Markewitz, Remainder by Paul Halsz

Presentation - Upper Canada Village Medieval Festival

Upper Canada Village

Morrisburg Ontario

MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JUNE 8 & 9, 2013
Open to Public – 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
MONDAY, JUNE 10, 2013
Education Day / Open to Public – 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

A colourful cast of medieval re-enactors, musicians, buskers, artisans, falconers, archers, merchants and jousting Knights in shining armour on horseback will converge on grounds adjacent to Upper Canada Village from Saturday through Monday, June 8, to 10 2013.  This festive encampment of tents, mini-stages, natural arenas and livestock quarters will also feature trebuchet and catapult demonstrations, children’s activities and a medieval marketplace. Check out our exciting line-up of       Medieval-style Weekend Entertainment.

Teachers … check out our action-packed Medieval Education Program on Monday, June 10.

ADMISSION TO THE MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL INCLUDES ADMISSION TO UPPER CANADA VILLAGE!

FESTIVAL LOCATION:

Admission to the festival is through the main Upper Canada Village entrance gate. The grounds of the Medieval Festival are outside of the Village proper, and are accessed through a castle facade entrance located at the eastern border of the site. Visitors will also have full access to the Village’s uninterrupted, authentic 19th century program during the festival dates as part of their admission for the day

UCV Medieval Festival web site

 

the Dark Ages Re-creation Company will be mounting a living history presentation inside this larger Medieval themed special event. As usual, we will be representing daily life during the Viking Age : 

Dr Sutherland at Laurier

Just in from Neil:

 

*How* Big? Scale & Objects

A recently recovered artifact is all the buzz in the Norse re-enactor's community.
It is a three dimensional depiction of a woman, cast in silver. The bottom of the figure has been broken off (thought to be plow damage from working the field it was discovered in).

The Harby 'Valkyre' - click to see the published image size (!)

(Metal) Detectorist Morten Skovsby found the ... figurine late last year at Hårby on Funen, (Central Denmark)

Go to the report

 Pulling a couple of the starting comments from the Norsefolk2 discussion group:

On 09/01/2013 04:24, Hilde wrote:
Hopefully, a high quality scan will be available some time in the future.

On Tue Jan 8, 2013 6:15 Charles wrote:
This is where the fun starts, now begins the search for archaeology to back up the outfit worn by the figure.
The need is there to make this more than an artistic representation.

The first rush was divided into to main topics:
1) Depiction of female with sword and shield - 'proof' of women in combat.
2) Deciphering details of the clothing.

There is a gap between the falling hair and the back of the neck. Much was being made of this : A pendant? Hung as a ritual object* ?
( Of course since the bottom of the dress line is broken, we can not tell if the piece was flat based to sit on a table, or might have once had details of the feet.)

But before we go too far - Look at another object from the Viking Age which has also been examined and argued about in minute detail:

'Odin fra Lejre '

by Tom Christensen

1,75 cm høj, 1,98 cm bred og 1,25 cm dyb,

(high / wide/ deep ?)

(images and quote from Christensen's report) 

The recent 'discussion' has centred around the sex of the figure. One camp sees a female, based on the length of the garment and seeing the dotted bands on the chest as four rows of beads. The other camp sees the figure as male, based on the band around the mouth seen as a moustache, and the iconography of the thrown of O∂in.  

Now - a reality check. Take a look at this image:

'Warrior' - click for detail

 Look at all that detail on the figure's costume (or lack thereof)!


This is actually one of those 30 mm cast tin alloy miniatures so many of us used for war game / Dungeons & Dragons playing 'back in the day' (and still may do, for I know).

But before you start to attempt to determine all those fine details - Let's try something first:

 

All objects reduced to LIFE scale in these images.

It has been my overwelming experience that no matter how much you work with artifacts, you never really understand then until you see them in life, actually before you. Reading the measurements does not really impact you. Almost everything is either way SMALLER, or way LARGER in actual truth, than what you imagine it is. 

This is absolutely critical. 

I have gotten into the habit now, for any object I have never actually seen before me, to take the source image, scan / open it into Photoshop (or the like). Then convert the image best as I can to the *actual* size given for the object. I will often put a piece of blank graph paper into my printer and print the life sized image on to that. This makes for very easy conversions of details into physical measurements. 

People have been going a bit overboard (in my opinion, not so humble), attempting to derive the finest detail from the published images of the objects. Yes, it can be a wonderful tool to take a very high resolution photograph, then look at that expanded version.

But what about the ancient artist who made the original object in the first place?

How small a thing was he really making?

What limits on detail were imposed by the medium he was working in?

Or by the tools he had available to work with?

Are you really looking at intended details of a reality? 

Or is all this combined through an artistic style? 

Let me tell you, as someone who has actually worked with lost wax casting techniques, there is very much a limit on just how much detail you can physically place on any object that is as small as these pieces are!

* "Ritual Object'

Archaeological short hand for : 'We don't know what the heck this is for'

Cross Post from Darrell's own 'Hammered Out Bits' 

Bead Furnace at Bonfield

 (Cross posted from Hammered Out Bits )

These images are all by Vandy Simpson, taken at the Bonfield Battle event run each Labour Day by my old friend Steve Muhlberger.

As a continuation of the ongoing experimental research under Neil Peterson, DARC mounted a combination demonstration and hands on session with a possible Viking Age bead working furnace. The furnaces are clay & horse manure construction, fire charcoal, and are based on 'possible' footprints suggested by the archaeology primarily from Ribe Denmark. For a more complete background, see Neil's published research.

Overall view of the set up - inside the 'forge' duggout area

Working in the stack, heating new rod to apply decoration

Streaks are small pieces of burning charcoal in the vent

Two primary problems are plaguing us with this specific design, which is based on the size of one of the uncovered 'base plates' :
1) Although high enough temperatures can be produced to effectively work the glass, the actual effective time is quite short. Our skill levels are mid level at best, and typically only one semi complex (base plus two colour patterning) can be created in one charcoal fill cycle.
2) Marred surfaces, from flying ash and small particles of burning charcoal are common, almost universal. Artifact beads do not show these effects as common. This strongly suggests we are doing something 'wrong'.

Our next prototype furnace is abandoning the profiles suggested by the artifact bases. Instead I have suggested a design based more on the dynamics of burning charcoal, gathered from experience working with charcoal forges. The concept is to contain the hot gasses to produce an effect more like a torch - then work inside that blast. (An earlier post describes this system.)

There will be a workshop this weekend at Wareham where a few of us will be working with a new prototype. Hopefully there will be a field report with some images later in the week describing the results...

DARC published in EXARC!

Our Readers may be interested in this.
The journal 'EuroREA' has shifted from hard copy to a new on line format and name. In the most current issue, there are *two* submissions by DARC members! Neil' Peterson's piece describes the group's 2010 presentation at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC. There is also a longer article by Darrell Markewitz on mounting an effective iron smelting presentation.

EXARC JOURNAL Issue 2012/1 published!

Since it started in 2004, EuroREA has grown both in terms of content and readership. After sending you a month ago our printed EXARC Journal Digest 2011, we are now proud to present the first online issue of the EXARC Journal. We expect to publish this EXARC Journal three times a year.

Following the 2011 Digest which was published for our members by early December, we have now published the first issue of the online EXARC Journal. It contains 11 articles on archaeological open-air museums and experimental archaeology. These articles are access to members only.
The third category, mixed matters is open access and contains a total of 23 articles, some of which are conference reviews or book reviews, some other refer to people and events. We hope our readers are happy with the results and wish you happy reading.
There will be two more online issues of our EXARC Journal this year.

Below, an example of two of the total of 34 new articles in our EXARC Journal Issue 2012/1.

Below is one of a total of 23 (!) articles available free on line:

50th Anniversary of L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada

Neil Peterson (CA)

Issue 2012/1

The summer of 2010 saw the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Viking Era site at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland Canada. To celebrate this milestone Parks Canada arranged a number of special events, including an August visit from the Dark Ages Re-creation Company (DARC).

You will require a paid subscription to access the eleven Member only articles:

"But if you don't get any IRON..."

Darrell Markewitz (CA) Issue 2012/1 Experimental Archaeology

Few ancient processes are as mysterious as smelting ore into metallic iron. Just how, exactly, is this done? The exact processes used by the ancients are unknown, but modern experiments can suggest some possibilities... Read more

EXARC newsletter

DARC returns to LAM in 2012!

The Dark Ages Re-Creation Company
will be returning to
L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC!
July 19 - 27, 2012

At this point the exact interpretive program has not been established. The specific physical demonstrations will depend largely on what additional members of DARC chose to enlarge the core team.
What you can certainly expect to see:

Green Woodworking - including a spring pole lathe
(Grimmi roughing out, Thorgir on the lathe)

Weaving on the Warp Weighted Loom
(Ka∂lin preparing the warp)

Small Textiles - Spinning, Naelbinding, Tablet Weaving
(Jorin working in the sunshine.)

Domestic Tasks, including food preparation
(Kadja - 'A woman's work is never done - especially when she is a slave.')

Trade and Gaming
(Ragnar - ' Would you buy a used longship from this man?')

Some Other Guy who also seems to talk a LOT.
(Kettil ponders a question)
Daily Life in the Viking Age
(Snorri looking on)


First Image by D. Markewitz
Other images by P. Halasz
All taken during the August 2010 presenation