Teaching experimental archaeometallurgy at RUB,
Bochum, Germany (2018)
Bochum, Germany (2018)
Simon Timberlake assisted by Brenda Craddock taught a one semester course in the
“Theory and Practice of Experimental Archaeology” (BA Degree) and “Experimental
Archaeolometallurgy” (MA Degree) at the Institut Fur Archaeologische Wissenschaften
of the Ruhr-
This involved both lecture and practical sessions, with the practical ceramic firing,
cooking, metal ore smelting and metal crafting experiments taking place within the
garden of the Institute in the centre of the city of Bochum.
For their metallurgical experiments, students had to make all the equipment (bellows,
tuyeres, crucibles and moulds, etc.) they required to smelt the metals (copper,
tin and iron) and then to alloy tin and copper, and finally cast objects in both copper
and bronze.
Here is a photo gallery of some of the experimental work, and some of the objects
made.
Making bag bellows
Bivalve stone mould for an EBA type bronze knife
(Shetland soapstone)
(Shetland soapstone)
Firing ceramics (2)
Smelting Malachite with charcoal in a hole in
the ground
the ground
Copper from smelting experiment
Pouring tin from a crucible smelt
Smelting furnace in the late afternoon
Filled clay moulds
Bronze pour
Cast bronze knife with handle
Cast bronze arrowhead (7cm long)
Cast flanged axe with sprue cut off and removed
All photographs courtesy of Archaeological Institute (RUB) : students work
Firing ceramics
Fired refractories
This website was made possible by a grant from the Cambrian Archaeology Association
