Profile avatar
ancientcraftuk.bsky.social
Experimental Archaeologist; Media consultant; Specialist in Flintknapping & Bronze casting: see my work displayed at The British Museum & Stonehenge Find me at: https://www.ancientcraft.co.uk/
67 posts 2,751 followers 468 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
Posts 21 Comments 29

Agriculture, the technology that changed the world (and us) A seasonal cycle of moving to different campsites to utilise food sources changed to working the land. Neolithic farmers appear to have genetically dominated the smaller hunter-gatherer groups within a short period of time. 🏺🦣🧪

submitted 24 days ago • 2 comments

How did people make arrowheads in the Stone Age? A flake of stone would be trimmed, then have hundreds of tiny flakes detached using an antler point. The knapper would put pressure on the flaker tool from their abdomen while the flake was braced again a leg. 🎥 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social

submitted 43 days ago • 3 comments

My gorgeous Christmas present 💝 By the hands of lovely @emlouwynjones.bsky.social and @ancientcraftuk.bsky.social

submitted 64 days ago • 3 comments

Well, it’s finally happened, one for the bucket list. This week I found a flint handaxe at Happisburgh while walking with friends. Their shared concern was due to my delighted dancing looking like I was having a funny turn!

submitted 76 days ago • 101 comments

Handaxes on the move! We’ve been busy making lots of replica prehistoric goodies for Christmas presents. But a couple found themselves on a plane with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social heading to Australia for her Cells to Civilisation tour! Here’s one of Palaeolithic handaxes being made: 🏺 🦣 🧪

submitted 84 days ago • 8 comments

I have many new followers since I last introduced myself. I'm an #archaeologist at Yale, and one of my specialties is identifying the geological origins of obsidian artifacts using nondestructive chemical tests. This carved obsidian bowl, for example, originated from a source in northeastern Turkey.

submitted 89 days ago • 2 comments

In honor of #FlintFriday, get a load of this chonky beauty from the Collection Smith at UdeM: a textbook amygdaloid Acheulean handaxe on tan flint. I especially dig the differential patination shown by color differences that suggests one of two possible trajectories in this tool's use-life... 1/3

submitted 90 days ago • 2 comments

I am often asked what I do with the flakes from flintknapping when making a large tool (and am occasionally accused of being wasteful). But many are saved for arrowheads or other tools, while others are saved for workshops so students can practice making scrapers and flake tools.

submitted 91 days ago • 0 comments

The Ossuary, Jersey, with extra lens flare. A small Cist-in-Circle tomb The remains of 20 people were interred in this little chamber of pink & grey granite during the Chalcolithic. Built amidst coastal woodland before sand dunes inundated it. @jerseyheritage.bsky.social #TombTuesday #AncientSky 🏺

submitted 93 days ago • 8 comments

Weirdest material I've knapped? There are a few, but can you guess what this is? Art group Troika asked me to make flint handaxes which would be fitted to silicon wafer boards as part of several art installations including "Pink Noise" at the Langen Foundation... 📷 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social

submitted 94 days ago • 3 comments

Sadly the AncientCraft Facebook page is becoming overrun with comments like this on almost every post/video. Frightening stuff… *blocks user*

submitted 94 days ago • 6 comments

Prehistorians starter pack: go.bsky.app/R1ejt58

submitted 95 days ago • 48 comments

Early Bronze Age tree-rings & tidal bundles (laminated roddon fills) #Fenland

submitted 96 days ago • 1 comment

Making a Bronze Age axe… A few years ago @emlouwynjones.bsky.social and I made a film for Kings Lynn museum showing the heating, casting and finishing involved in making the kind of axes used to make Seahenge. Here is a shortened version:

submitted 98 days ago • 1 comment

Technology that seemingly started with working silicon is now mostly driven by it. One of the weirder materials I’ve knapped was refined silicon from an ingot that are typically used for microchips. Though it flakes, it’s quite unlike flint or glass, but can be used to make a Palaeolithic handaxe!

submitted 99 days ago • 2 comments

What’s under this flake? While I was working on this flint I discovered this little fellow who had been trapped in flint for 90 million years. Fossils like this can make flintknapping tricky as they can divert or stop the plane of fracture which forms a flake. But what did I make in the end?

submitted 101 days ago • 1 comment

Oh. My. Goodness.

submitted 104 days ago • 0 comments

Just a dose of #Archaeology Zen. Sealed agricultural layers by the coast of Southwestern Norway. Black and brown layers are the old agricultural fields. The bottom one is both field and the initial forrest clearance in the Bronze Age. Fields were regularly covered by sand over time.

submitted 105 days ago • 7 comments

How were handaxes made in the Stone Age? They were made & used by several different hominin species in the Palaeolithic from just under 2 million years ago up until the last Neanderthal ~ 40,000 yrs ago. I make these for our prehistoric replicas shop (link in bio) 🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social

submitted 105 days ago • 2 comments

My replica of the Iron Age armlet fragment from Dunadd is off to @kilmartinmuseum. A great opportunity to work with one of the cannel coal samples I collected from the Fife coastline earlier in the year. I think it's safe to say this Scottish 'jet' lookalike stood up to the test!

submitted 106 days ago • 1 comment

Our replica Bronze Age Basal looped spears are back in stock! 3300-3125 years ago, these spears would have been the primary weapon of a warrior while swords were still developing. They were effective for slashing & thrusting. www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page... 🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social

submitted 106 days ago • 0 comments