Period: Stone Age (13.000 - 1700 BC)

Project title: Is it fair to keep public out of any archaeological research context?/ Er det riktig å utelate publikum fra enhver arkeologisk forskningskontekst?

Researchers: Archaeologists Tine Schenk & Grethe Moéll Pedersen,

Norway

Email: tinebr(at)student.hf.uio.no

Year: 2008

Research Problem:

Archaeologists think they are so clever and know all there is to know about the past, but maybe Lejre's visitors can do better! This year at Lejre Research centre our visitors will be the archaeologist. We will be testing arrows from the Stone Age. We pretend to be hunting for animals in the forest with bow and arrow. But how efficient are Stone Age arrows? How hard-wearing is a hunting arrow with razorsharp flintpoints? Which glue is most efficient to fasten the points? How many times can an arrow be fired? Can the arrows only be used once or can they be used many times hunting in the forest?

Archaeologists Tina Schenk and Grethe Moéll Pedersen are studying how historic issues are communicated to ordinary people by scientists. With this experiment they invite Lejres visitors to participate directly in the research of the past. The theory is; everybody can contribute with valuable input to scientific research. And perhaps peoples experience of past issues will become more exciting!

Researcher's Conclusion:

It was the purpose of this experiment to investigate whether or not ordinary people, visiting a historic centre, can contribute positively to archaeological experiments. We designed an experiment, where the visitors could participate effortlessly in the process, which led us to choosing an experiment that tested glues for fastening arrow points through archery testes.

We focused on birch bark tar as a glue. The tar has been found as far back as 8000 years before present - the time of the Neanderthals. Furthermore it is well documented, that the tar was used in both Stone Age and Iron Age. We extricated the tar for the experiment our selves. In addition we tested another three types of glue to compare with the birch bark glue; skin glue, cooked on elk hide and sinews, pine resin and modern glue. We chose to tie arrow points to the shafts with reindeer sinews, with the exception of one set of arrows where we used only the sinews and no glue to gain further perspective on the effects of the glue.

The visitors shot two series of arrows with different types of glue - one for adults and one for children, after which we - the archaeologists - each fired a series of arrows. The experiment was finished of with weight tests of all the arrows, which survived the shooting tests with the points still in place, in order to determine how much weight it would take to pull of the points, thus revealing the strongest glue.

In conclusion the results of the visitors experimental archery were very much corresponding with that of the archaeologist, which leads us to say, that it is possible to involve the visitors to historic centres far more in scientific archaeological research, with out diminishing the scientific value of the experiment.

The archaeologist shows a child how to use the bow.

Reference number HAF 13/08