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Inside the hands-on lab of an experimental archaeologist

Beyond flint-knapping and tossing spears with atlatls, Kent State University’s Metin Eren has a vision for his field’s future.

And it's just one of the many fascinating projects routinely undertaken in his Experimental Archaeology Laboratory, where he and his team try to reverse-engineer all manner of ancient technologies, whether they involve stone tools, ceramics, metal, butchery, textiles, and so forth. It was during his first post-doc at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, that he met biological anthropologists Stephen Lycett and Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, who ignited his corresponding interest in evolutionary theory within the context of his archaeological pursuits. Eren also sees a great need for more replication studies in his chosen field, even for that infamous frozen feces paper, which was primarily meant to bring the question out of the world of myth and legend and into the realm of science.

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