Somehow, today feels like Friday! Which has absolutely nothing to do with the proper content of this blog post... which is:

Around the World in 80 Experiments!

EXARC is hosting the Experimental Archaeology Conference with this title, starting March 29 and ending April 1 (no April fool joke).



Also no joke: It's open access, and completely free. You can find out more about the conference programme here, and register for it here.

Here are a few more pics from the making of the dyeing experiment card...

It took me a while of thinking on how to best present the results. I wanted them to be comparable across both the different metals and the different runs of the experiment. Because of the lack of a reference in the add-on 2013, there were exactly three different samples for each data point, which made things nicely line up in the end.



The cardboard strips were labelled on the back, I wound the threads on and fixed them temporarily with sticky tape, then glued them into place with PVA wood glue. I tried to line them up as perfectly as possible, and in the end, there were only very slight variations from the perfect line.



Another thing I pondered for a while: whether I would write the info necessary by hand, or  print it on. I decided, in the end, to do it by hand - there were bits that I would need to do by hand anyways, as I had not printed the metal name on the strips before winding the threads on, and now it was too late. Because I thought it would be weirder to mix than to do it all by hand... well, there you go.

I chose pencil for the writing - because that is very lightfast, and I didn't have a pen that I was sure would be appropriately lightfast. (Yes, I could have used iron gall ink - in theory, but I am not practised at handlettering with that, and, well... perfectionism, anyone?).



As the final thing, I added a blue card - because I could. Because the exhibition and the light exposure of the samples might just as well serve as a fade test; for that, the strips with yarn are layered so they are half exposed and half protected. The blue card is also half exposed and half protected.

I already did a lightfastness test with samples from the last experiment run, in that case fabric samples, but there was none yet with the yarns from that or the previous runs. This will be remedied now! It is, obviously, not a really perfect and proper test as the yarns have seen a few hours (unknown amounts...) of indoor light before in their existence, but it's better than not doing the test at all, or than not adding the bluecard for the reference... so. There you go.

The whole assembly was then glued to another carrier layer of cardboard, and then everything went into a parcel and on its merry way to the exhibition. I hope it will be interesting for the visitors!

The MAMUZ, the museum in Asparn/Zaya in Austria, is preparing an exhibition about experimental archaeology (more about it here, in German). The exhibition will then move on as a wandering exhibition, showing objects from archaeological experiments and explaining the objects, and the experiments, in video clips.

So I've been busy doing video stuff, including the cutting and editing, and doing all the other bits and things necessary to prepare. What ate a lot of time - much more than I had expected - was making a colour sample card as the object to go in there to represent the Pompeii Dyeing Experiment.  This started in 2012 with a first run, and there was an add-on made in 2013, followed by two more runs of the experiment in 2016 and 2018. The aim was to find out how a metal kettle would influence the results of the dyeing process, both due to the presence of metal in the mordanting bath, in the dyeing bath, and in both.



For the exhibition, I wound the samples onto strips of cardboard, grouped by kind (mordant, dye, both) and by metal. Nine turns of the thinner wool, used in 12/13 and 2018, and six turns of the thicker wool used in 2016. All neatly in the same position on each strip...



...and it's amazing how much of brain such a simple task can eat.

My personal main takeaway from this experiment, by the way, is the importance of repetition - plus a much higher appreciation of just how much variation natural materials can introduce, and how much of a role sheer luck plays in even the best controlled experiment.

In the 2012 run, we ended up with a reddish colour on the yarn dyed in the copper and the clean lead kettle - which made a kettle made from lead with an oxide layer on the surface the neutral kettle, very close to the actual control dyed in a glass jar with no metal plate added at all. In the following runs, we were never able to reproduce that reddish colour - apart from the iron, our samples all turned out pretty yellow, and much the same across all kettles. If not for that chance aberration in the first run, we would have thought that there is no real difference between the kettle materials, at least not when using madder or birch leaf as a dye.

I'm actually tempted to run the experiment again next time that the Forum will happen (2021, I'm looking at your autumn with a critical eye!), with weld as a dyestuff instead of birch leaf, and see if results are giving us a clear difference there.

Anyway - the card has been finished, which involved lots of glueing, and the use of some of my bookbinding equipment, and now it will go on its way to Asparn!

[caption id="attachment_5775" align="alignnone" width="169"] Pressing with weights until the glue has set...

I'll be taking part in the last Mittelaltermarkt Online this year, on Saturday, December 19, from 16:00 h onwards.

There will be next to no Christmas Markets in Germany this year, and I'm a bit sad about this, even though I'm not a big drinker of mulled wine. But I've always enjoyed a stroll through the market in cold weather, looking at baubles and cookie cutters and stalls selling soap and spices and furry indoor shoes. And, of course and traditional for me, eating Currywurst mit Pommes (curry sausage and fries)! No Currywurst this year, is how it looks.

But there will be at least this online market, and one where there's no need to keep a metre of distance (you can push your nose as close to your screen as you like), or where you are going to have very cold fingers and toes after a while (unless you have a very cold space to sit with your computer) and you can have all the mulled wine that you want (having heated it in your own kitchen). So - stop by on Saturday the 19th, have a look around at all the stalls, and feel free to drop by and have a chat with me at my "stall"!

There's a "Mittelaltermarkt Online" again on Saturday, and I'll be there!

There have been a few of these markets this year, but I was away or otherwise engaged for the last few events. This time, the stars have lined up favourably, and I'll take part again.

The market organisers have shifted the timeframe of the market, it now starts at 17:00 German time, so the Saturday (which we usually spend, at least partly, with grocery shopping, like so many others) doesn't get ripped apart by a noon-to-afternoon event. I totally approve, and am very happy with that change.

In case you missed the last ones, and don't know at all what I am talking about: The market is intended to give people a possibility to do some "medieval shopping" that they would otherwise have done on real-life markets and events. There's a stage with some entertainment, and stalls with different goods offered by different people. They are not all medieval as in historically correct, but if you don't expect that, it's quite enjoyable and fun.

Registration is necessary (but free), and then you can click yourself along the market paths (which remind me of a simple game dungeon), look at the stalls left and right, and chat with the stall owners, look at their goods, and maybe buy something. It's even possible to run a video meeting so one can video-chat with people. That is the closest online equivalent to a real market that I have yet seen, and actually allows to explain things or show something.

So: Stop by if you wish, and have a chat with me!

I found out on the weekend, by happy chance, that there's a special exhibition running in Bamberg:
Die Bamberger Kaisergewänder unter der Lupe. Methoden und Ergebnisse der aktuellen Forschungen. The exhibition started on September 25 and will run until January 10, 2021. It is presenting the results of the research done on the imperial garments that are conserved in Bamberg in the last five years. These are splendid pieces, and I will definitely go there to look at them - it's almost on my doorstep, after all!

There's also two virtual exhibitions that might be interesting: One about the cultural history of distancing (and social distancing), and one showing some works of Albrecht Dürer. Both are in German (and they were a bit awkward to look at in my browser).

More catching up: There's a recently started exhibition at the Haus der Seidenkultur Krefeld, titled "Purpurschnecke und Färberwaid". It is about the development of textile dyeing and colourings, and it will remain open until 28.02.2021.

You can read more about the exhibition in German here, and English information is available here. And if you want, you can even watch the video recording of the (mostly digital) opening!