ABSTRACT
What is an experiment? What is experimental archaeology? There is in fact scholarly consensus about the answers to these questions (Callahan, 1999; Coles, 1976; 1979). Experimental archaeology involves examining craft techniques and the traces of usage on tools and materials, as well as retracing the correlations between events, techniques, and everyday life in the past. Experimental archaeology does so by conducting scientific, methodologically designed studies in which the size of the variables can be altered and empirical data and information can be gained. The process is completed by the formulation of research questions, the design of an experimental setup, measurements, documentation, and repetition of the experiments. This approach makes it possible to make statements and formulate hypotheses, which can in turn be subject to further testing. Reenactment and living history draw on aspects of experimental archaeology and its findings, but also extend these. They are coterminous with experimental archaeology but do not (only) focus on experimentation, and thus constitute separate fields of inquiry.
