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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Andrea Dolfini, Dr Rob CollinsORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
The replication of objects lies at the heart of material culture research in archaeology. In particular, replication plays a key role in a number of core activities in our discipline including teaching, research, and public engagement. Despite its being fundamental to the archaeological process, however, replication comes across as an under-theorised field of artefact research. The problem is compounded by the recent development of digital technologies, which add a new layer of challenges as well as opportunities to the long-established practice of making and using physical copies of objects. The paper discusses a number of issues with artefact replication including aims, design, and methodology, from the standpoint of two research projects currently coordinated by the authors: the Bronze Age Combat project, which explores prehistoric fighting techniques through field experiments and wear analysis (Dolfini); and the NU Digital Heritage project, which centres upon the digital capture and modelling of Roman material culture from Hadrian’s Wall (Collins). Both projects have actively created replicas in physical or digital media, and direct comparison of the two projects provide a number of useful lessons regarding the role, uses, and limits of artefact replication in archaeology.
Author(s): Dolfini A, Collins R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Open Archaeology
Year: 2018
Volume: 4
Pages: 36-49
Print publication date: 02/03/2018
Online publication date: 16/03/2018
Acceptance date: 21/08/2017
Date deposited: 19/03/2018
ISSN (electronic): 2300-6560
Publisher: De Gruyter
URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2018-0002
DOI: 10.1515/opar-2018-0002
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