Experimental archaeology in Vadastra (Romania). Building, destruction and digging of a house unit.
The experimental archaeology project put up in the rural town of Vadastra (Romania)concerns the building, distruction and digging of a house unit with wooden and woven skeleton covered in clay. The structure, divided in two rooms by two walls and a column, presents two windows, an access opening, a oven and a wooden platform. The straw covering is separated from the underlying rooms by a wooden and clay floor. During the construction the quantity of all the raw material (wood, clay, straw, water…) was calculated. Reproductions of entire and fragmentary archaological artifacts (ceramic, obsidian, flint, clay figurines, polished stone, …) were placed on the floor and on the attic of the structure. The house unit survey concerned not only the structure but also positioning of all these elements. The fire of the house unite was followed and documented with pictures, video and temperature’s evaluation. The next stratigraphic excavation has concerned an area (internal and partially external) equal to almost one third of the total and has permitted the recognition of the collapse dynamics in their different aspects. The project is carried out in close cooperation and thanks to prof. Dragos Gheorghiu of the University of Bucarest.
Cavulli F. & Gheorghiu D., 2008. Looking for A Methodology Burning Wattle and Daub Housing Structures. A Preliminary Report on An Archaeological Experiment.pdf »»