You’ve got to let me know when you go back to see the steam engines – I really want to accompany you…..

I just wanted to add to the part about archaeologists doing experiments with ancient technologies, and why we do it. One aspect, that you mentioned, is to see whether a particular method is feasible or practical, to see how much time it takes, what other tools and materials are involved. But another really important aspect of doing experiments with ancient technology is to compare the results of different experimental techniques with the archaeological materials, in order to try to ascertain which technique is the one (or ones) that were used to make that assemblage of stone tools, or pottery or whatever.

We wouldn’t know half of what we know about stone tool technology of the paleolithic, for instance, if a lot of people hadn’t done experimental work, and then compared their results to the artifacts that were found . For instance, the Levallois technique, which is a very specific kind of core reduction technique that was used during a particular period of the Paleolithic in Europe.

This kind of research is called “experimental archaeology” and sometimes, “middle range theory”, or “behavioral archaeology”, and generally as “processual archaeology” and it was made popular by a guy called Lewis Binford, who was then a professor at the University of Chicago. A lot of these ideas existed before him, but he formalized these ideas in the 1960′s, and his name has been associated with it ever since. His work has been heavily critiqued, but the general principles and approach to understanding the material record is still and important part of archaeology today.