She spends a significant part of her time working with her primary passion - pottery. We can test nearly anything about prehistoric weaponry in this lab.”īebber, who hails from the university of Akron with an art background that evolved into a focus on archaeology and anthropology adds another layer to the lab’s resources and the insight into ancient artifacts that it promises to bring. “We shoot moose antlers to test durability. “We can test the weight, speed, velocity,” Eren said. They put them into arrows which they then fire at clay targets with a high-tech projectile launcher, testing the velocities of different shapes and materials with a speed-timer. “We’re trying to learn how they work to understand the evolution of technology.” “We test them, use them, shoot them, crush them, all to see if there are functional differences between the technology,” Eren said. “What we don’t know is if they intentionally designed them to adapt to different environments or prey.” “As they spread, Clovis spear points start to change,” he said. Through learning the craft of “flintknapping” - chipping away at the edges of rocks to shape them into weapons and tools - and creating weapon and tool replicas from composite materials, Eren’s team generate an endless supply of test materials. “A lot of labs have the artifacts and material science equipment, but I think what makes Kent State’s so unique is that our approach is experimental. “Our goal is to make this the premier archaeology lab in North America,” Eren said. student Michelle Bebber, and British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow Alastair Key, Eren’s lab is covering - and uncovering - nearly every facet of ancient stone technology. The grant allows Eren and his team to analyze the weapons technology of some of North America’s earliest inhabitants, the Clovis culture, dating back 11,000 to 12,000 years.Īlong with Ph.D. In February, Eren landed a $215,000 National Science Foundation grant for a three-year collaborative study with Southern Methodist University and the University of Tulsa, on which he is the lead investigator. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the classic first film of the iconic franchise, Harrison Ford’s legendary character steals a Peruvian idol and makes a daring escape as angry natives launch spears and arrows at him.Įren might well have stayed to ask the “Hovito” people how they shaped the rocks they used for their spearheads, and why they shaped them that way. And while he may not be swinging across lava-filled gorges and duking it out with bad guys, he already has secured federal funding for his cutting-edge laboratory, where he’s quickly carving out a niche in his field. Eren, Director of Archaeology and an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the College of arts and Sciences, joined Kent State University in June. Move over Indiana Jones - Archaeology has some fresh new faces.
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