Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 14 July 2017

Re-creating old weapons for new discoveries of human history

By DAKE KANG
Associated Press
KENT, Ohio (AP) — Metin
Eren wasn’t satisfied just
digging up ancient arrow-
heads to learn about the
past. He wanted to use
them for their intended
purpose.
But shooting and shatter-
ing priceless millennia-old
tips is out of the question,
so instead, the archaeolo-
gist chips replicas of the
stone-age weapons by
hand.
“We can break ‘em and
throw ‘em,” he says. “Our
imagination is the limit.”
The 34-year-old Kent State
University professor spe-
cializes in experimental ar-
chaeology — re-creating
ancient pots, knives and
arrows. By testing the repli-
cas in ways impossible with
the originals, archaeolo- In this June 1, 2017, photo, Metin Eren, an archaeologist at Kent State University, examines an imitation of an ancient arrow in Kent,
gists study how tools found Ohio.
in archaeological digs Associated Press
were actually used. “Even though it’s the Stone speculation running from “first truly American inven- exceptional example by
“The stuff that we find, it’s Age, they’re still thinking in religious rituals to mere tion.” conducting rigorous con-
just stuff,” says Brian An- a very modern way,” Eren decoration. Scientists from Brazil to Brit- trolled experiments,” said
drews, an archaeologist says. That’s where experimen- ain previously conducted Buchanan, who has co-
at Rogers State University. Already he has cracked tal archaeology came many kinds of experiments authored papers with Eren.
“Stuff’s cool, but we’re not one longtime mystery. In the in. By testing the pres- with re-creations, and bor- “Earlier experimental stud-
interested in stuff for the early 1900s, archaeologists sure at which the arrow- rowing techniques and ies suffered from being of
sake of itself. We’re inter- found unusually shaped ar- heads would crack using a technologies from other variable quality and rarely
ested in the human behav- rowheads in North Amer- $30,000 crusher and com- scientists has been long- built on previous studies.”
iors that went into making ica, with grooves carved puter models, Eren discov- standing practice. On a Thursday morning,
it.” from the base halfway to ered the grooves act as a Still, Eren’s lab, only a year Eren hunches over a pile
Eren’s experiments focus the head’s tip. shock absorber. old, stands out for its cut- of flint shavings. Donning
on making sense of ancient They first appeared over It allows the arrowhead’s ting-edge equipment and goggles, he grips a chunk
weapons littered across 13,000 years ago and thinned base to crumple singular focus on archaeo- of obsidian the size of a
the Americas, illustrating spread rapidly across the slightly and absorb energy logical experimentation, large pickle jar and cracks
how humans first settled continent, but existed upon the arrow’s impact, says Briggs Buchanan, a a moose antler down on
the Western Hemisphere: nowhere else. Research- making the head less likely professor at the University one edge. With a resound-
through careful prepara- ers were puzzled why the to break. of Tulsa. ing snap, a blade of obsid-
tion, long-term planning,
and refined technology. grooves were carved, with Archaeologists call it the “Metin’s lab is setting an ian chips off.q