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One of the main forms of experimental archaeology is the creation of copies of historical structures using only historically accurate technologies. This is sometimes known as ''reconstruction archaeology''. However, the product of experimental archaeology is data, not the constructed house, axe, pot or whatsoever. A good example is Butser Ancient Farm in the English county of Hampshire which is a working replica of an Iron Age farmstead where long-term experiments in prehistoric agriculture, animal husbandry and manufacturing are held to test ideas posited by archaeologists. In Denmark , the Lejre Experimental Centre carries out even more ambitious work on such diverse topics as artificial Bronze Age and Iron Age burials, prehistoric science and stone tool manufacture in the absence of Flint . Other examples include:
Other types of experimental archaeology may involve burying modern replica Artefact s and Ecofact s for varying lengths of time to analyse the Post-depositional Effects on them. Other archaeologists have built modern Earthwork s and measured the effects of silting in the ditches and weathering and subsidence on the banks to understand better how ancient monuments would have looked. The work of Flintknapper s is also a kind of experimental archaeology as much has been learnt about the many different types of flint tools through the hands-on approach of actually making them. Experimental archaeologists have equipped modern professional butchers, archers and lumberjacks with replica flint tools to judge how effective they would have been for certain tasks. Use wear traces on the modern flint tools are compared to similar traces on archaeological artefacts, making probabillity hypotheses on the possible kind of use feasible. Hand Axe s have been shown to be particularly effective at cutting animal meat from the bone and jointing it. REFERENCES
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