Recreating artefacts and ancient skills. From experiment to interpretation

This volume focuses on the role and means of archaeological experimentation in understanding the processes involved in the manufacture and use of past artifacts. When asking for contributions, we suggested the five stages of an experimental approach as main-themes: 1. Selection and acquisition of raw material, identical to those present in the archaeological assemblages. 2. Production of replicas following the technological transformation schemes identified by the direct study of archaeological items. 3. Experimental use as indicated by the publications/ethnographic comparisons or as suggested by the morphology/use-wear evolution of the archaeological items. 4. Microscopical analysis of use-wear patterns. 5. Comparison of experimental data with archaeological data in order to validate the existing hypotheses on the way they were manufactured and used by the human communities. A second aim was that the invited authors to have various archaeological backgrounds and cover a broad spatial