THE PROJECT

On fire! Experimental Archaeology is a festival that takes place every 4 years at the Siem Reap EFEO center in Cambodia.

The EFEO (École française d'Extrême-Orient) is a public establishment of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research dedicated to the study of asian civilizations through humanities and social sciences researches.

The 1st edition occured in December 2014 with an angkorian “dragon-kiln” replica successfully firing more than 100 angkorian style potteries (watch our video).

We are very excited to announce the 2nd edition for December 2018, bringing alive our “dragon-kiln” once again and unveiling an iron smelting furnace.

You may have some questions:

Who are we?

You can meet us here: https://www.onfirearchaeology.com/team

We form a very eclectic team:

Researchers, Archaeologists Team

Armand Desbat, Directeur de recherche émérite CNRS

Dominique Soutif, Maître de conférence EFEO

Mitch Hendrickson, Associate Professor UIC, Director of INDAP

Stephanie Leroy, Chargée de recherche INSHS, CNRS

Sylvain Bauvais, Chargé de recherche CNRS

Julia Esteve, Lecturer, Mahidol University

Myongduk Choi, Doctorante, Université Lyon 2

Christian Fischer, Enseignant-Chercheur, UCLA

Building and firing team

Nicolas Josso, Technical manager

Olivier Le Tétour, SFX

Leap, Head constructor

Li, Technician constructor

Laan, Technician constructor

and about 12 Cambodian countrymen to feed the fires (24 to 36 hours)

Mediation team

Caroline Rufino, Cultural mediator

What is experimental archaeology?

It consists of, on the field experiments, conducted by archaeologist, to test archaeological hypotheses and bring answer to research problems by using the same technology as our ancestors.

What are we looking for?

Working in Cambodia, our research focuses on the Angkorian era.
After having excavated earthenware and metal production sites, we now want to understand how potters and metallurgists mastered fire : how were the kilns and furnaces built, how were the potteries made, how was the ore processed, how many degrees were reached during the firing and smelting process...
We have many questions and hypotheses that need to be answered and verified to gain a better knowledge of this period and be able to share it with the public.

What do firing and smelting mean?

Take a look to our website: https://www.onfirearchaeology.com/firing-smelting

Our interactive schemas will give you a better idea of how the furnace and the dragon-kiln work.

How will we achieve this?

We already made a lot of progress, but we still need your help to take things further!

What has already been done:

- the dragon-kiln has been rebuilt successfully,

- the iron-furnace's body is almost completed.

What we are currently working on:

- Collecting and processing the ore that will be smelt in the iron-furnace,
- Purchasing the wood and charcoal that will be used for the firing and smelting,
- Building a multiple bellows system to force air into the furnace's tuyeres,
- Having the Angkorian pottery replicas fashioned at the famous LO_YUYU ceramics workshop. They have sent to us some pictures of the raw pots, they look amazing!

What is coming next:

THE EVENT

This is one of the most exciting part of the project, because we will share it with you!
We hope you to be there for the D-day at the EFEO center in Siem Reap.

This is the schedule :

- 2 firings of the dragon-kiln to cook the Angkorian pottery replicas (firing is a lengthy process that takes between 24 and 36 hours),

- The potteries will then be left to cool for a whole day before being unloaded at the end of the firing.

- One iron ore smelting in the furnace,

- An exhibition showing how potteries are made around the world and in Cambodia will be open to the public.

Archaeology students from Phnom Penh will be attending a seminar to learn about those processes.

For more information, visit our website www.onfirearchaeology.com

If you can't achieve your donation, please contact us : onfire.archaeology@gmail.com

On fire - Experimental Archaeology