Welcome to the Experimental Archaeology website at Moravian University.

Experimental archaeology is a relatively new field that uses a scientific approach to testing theories based on archaeological evidence such as artifacts and structures. (http://exarc.net/lexicon/6#Experimental_archaeology)

Two Moravian University historians, Sandy Bardsley and Jamie Paxton, began this course in experimental archaeology in the spring 2018 semester. Subsequent classes have reported on the course in blogs linked here. Every year, we carry out some similar experiments and some that are new and different.

We base many of our experiments at the A. John '50 and Lillian K. Deputy Field Study Center for Environmental and Biological Sciences. This property consists of about 70 acres of mostly wooded land with a few clearings suitable for planting and building. The Deputy Center also contains the foundations of an old house and barn as well as several stone walls in disrepair.

In April 2017, we attended the Tenth Experimental Archaeology Conference in Leiden, the Netherlands, and in April 2019 we presented a poster at the Eleventh Exarc Confrence in Trent, Italy. The opportunities to meet other scholars were terrific. The ExArc comunity is warm, welcoming, and incredibly helpful.