Dr. James Dilley
@ancientcraftuk.bsky.social
Experimental Archaeologist; Media consultant; Specialist in Flintknapping & Bronze casting: see my work displayed at The British Museum & Stonehenge
Find me at: https://www.ancientcraft.co.uk/
Find me at: https://www.ancientcraft.co.uk/
Agriculture, the technology that changed the world (and us)
A seasonal cycle of moving to different campsites to utilise food sources changed to working the land. Neolithic farmers appear to have genetically dominated the smaller hunter-gatherer groups within a short period of time. 🏺🦣🧪
A seasonal cycle of moving to different campsites to utilise food sources changed to working the land. Neolithic farmers appear to have genetically dominated the smaller hunter-gatherer groups within a short period of time. 🏺🦣🧪
February 3, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Agriculture, the technology that changed the world (and us)
A seasonal cycle of moving to different campsites to utilise food sources changed to working the land. Neolithic farmers appear to have genetically dominated the smaller hunter-gatherer groups within a short period of time. 🏺🦣🧪
A seasonal cycle of moving to different campsites to utilise food sources changed to working the land. Neolithic farmers appear to have genetically dominated the smaller hunter-gatherer groups within a short period of time. 🏺🦣🧪
How did people make arrowheads in the Stone Age?
A flake of stone would be trimmed, then have hundreds of tiny flakes detached using an antler point. The knapper would put pressure on the flaker tool from their abdomen while the flake was braced again a leg.
🎥 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
A flake of stone would be trimmed, then have hundreds of tiny flakes detached using an antler point. The knapper would put pressure on the flaker tool from their abdomen while the flake was braced again a leg.
🎥 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
January 15, 2025 at 6:27 PM
How did people make arrowheads in the Stone Age?
A flake of stone would be trimmed, then have hundreds of tiny flakes detached using an antler point. The knapper would put pressure on the flaker tool from their abdomen while the flake was braced again a leg.
🎥 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
A flake of stone would be trimmed, then have hundreds of tiny flakes detached using an antler point. The knapper would put pressure on the flaker tool from their abdomen while the flake was braced again a leg.
🎥 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
I have good days and bad (the bad days I go back to bronze casting 🙄)
December 13, 2024 at 9:24 PM
I have good days and bad (the bad days I go back to bronze casting 🙄)
Well, it’s finally happened, one for the bucket list.
This week I found a flint handaxe at Happisburgh while walking with friends. Their shared concern was due to my delighted dancing looking like I was having a funny turn!
This week I found a flint handaxe at Happisburgh while walking with friends. Their shared concern was due to my delighted dancing looking like I was having a funny turn!
December 13, 2024 at 6:38 PM
Well, it’s finally happened, one for the bucket list.
This week I found a flint handaxe at Happisburgh while walking with friends. Their shared concern was due to my delighted dancing looking like I was having a funny turn!
This week I found a flint handaxe at Happisburgh while walking with friends. Their shared concern was due to my delighted dancing looking like I was having a funny turn!
Handaxes on the move!
We’ve been busy making lots of replica prehistoric goodies for Christmas presents. But a couple found themselves on a plane with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social heading to Australia for her Cells to Civilisation tour!
Here’s one of Palaeolithic handaxes being made:
🏺 🦣 🧪
We’ve been busy making lots of replica prehistoric goodies for Christmas presents. But a couple found themselves on a plane with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social heading to Australia for her Cells to Civilisation tour!
Here’s one of Palaeolithic handaxes being made:
🏺 🦣 🧪
December 5, 2024 at 10:55 AM
Handaxes on the move!
We’ve been busy making lots of replica prehistoric goodies for Christmas presents. But a couple found themselves on a plane with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social heading to Australia for her Cells to Civilisation tour!
Here’s one of Palaeolithic handaxes being made:
🏺 🦣 🧪
We’ve been busy making lots of replica prehistoric goodies for Christmas presents. But a couple found themselves on a plane with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social heading to Australia for her Cells to Civilisation tour!
Here’s one of Palaeolithic handaxes being made:
🏺 🦣 🧪
I am often asked what I do with the flakes from flintknapping when making a large tool (and am occasionally accused of being wasteful). But many are saved for arrowheads or other tools, while others are saved for workshops so students can practice making scrapers and flake tools.
November 28, 2024 at 5:40 PM
I am often asked what I do with the flakes from flintknapping when making a large tool (and am occasionally accused of being wasteful). But many are saved for arrowheads or other tools, while others are saved for workshops so students can practice making scrapers and flake tools.
Weirdest material I've knapped?
There are a few, but can you guess what this is?
Art group Troika asked me to make flint handaxes which would be fitted to silicon wafer boards as part of several art installations including "Pink Noise" at the Langen Foundation...
📷 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
There are a few, but can you guess what this is?
Art group Troika asked me to make flint handaxes which would be fitted to silicon wafer boards as part of several art installations including "Pink Noise" at the Langen Foundation...
📷 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
November 25, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Weirdest material I've knapped?
There are a few, but can you guess what this is?
Art group Troika asked me to make flint handaxes which would be fitted to silicon wafer boards as part of several art installations including "Pink Noise" at the Langen Foundation...
📷 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
There are a few, but can you guess what this is?
Art group Troika asked me to make flint handaxes which would be fitted to silicon wafer boards as part of several art installations including "Pink Noise" at the Langen Foundation...
📷 @emlouwynjones.bsky.social
Sadly the AncientCraft Facebook page is becoming overrun with comments like this on almost every post/video. Frightening stuff… *blocks user*
November 25, 2024 at 2:32 PM
Sadly the AncientCraft Facebook page is becoming overrun with comments like this on almost every post/video. Frightening stuff… *blocks user*
Making a Bronze Age axe…
A few years ago @emlouwynjones.bsky.social and I made a film for Kings Lynn museum showing the heating, casting and finishing involved in making the kind of axes used to make Seahenge.
Here is a shortened version:
A few years ago @emlouwynjones.bsky.social and I made a film for Kings Lynn museum showing the heating, casting and finishing involved in making the kind of axes used to make Seahenge.
Here is a shortened version:
November 21, 2024 at 6:27 PM
Making a Bronze Age axe…
A few years ago @emlouwynjones.bsky.social and I made a film for Kings Lynn museum showing the heating, casting and finishing involved in making the kind of axes used to make Seahenge.
Here is a shortened version:
A few years ago @emlouwynjones.bsky.social and I made a film for Kings Lynn museum showing the heating, casting and finishing involved in making the kind of axes used to make Seahenge.
Here is a shortened version:
Technology that seemingly started with working silicon is now mostly driven by it.
One of the weirder materials I’ve knapped was refined silicon from an ingot that are typically used for microchips. Though it flakes, it’s quite unlike flint or glass, but can be used to make a Palaeolithic handaxe!
One of the weirder materials I’ve knapped was refined silicon from an ingot that are typically used for microchips. Though it flakes, it’s quite unlike flint or glass, but can be used to make a Palaeolithic handaxe!
November 20, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Technology that seemingly started with working silicon is now mostly driven by it.
One of the weirder materials I’ve knapped was refined silicon from an ingot that are typically used for microchips. Though it flakes, it’s quite unlike flint or glass, but can be used to make a Palaeolithic handaxe!
One of the weirder materials I’ve knapped was refined silicon from an ingot that are typically used for microchips. Though it flakes, it’s quite unlike flint or glass, but can be used to make a Palaeolithic handaxe!
What’s under this flake?
While I was working on this flint I discovered this little fellow who had been trapped in flint for 90 million years. Fossils like this can make flintknapping tricky as they can divert or stop the plane of fracture which forms a flake. But what did I make in the end?
While I was working on this flint I discovered this little fellow who had been trapped in flint for 90 million years. Fossils like this can make flintknapping tricky as they can divert or stop the plane of fracture which forms a flake. But what did I make in the end?
November 18, 2024 at 5:59 PM
What’s under this flake?
While I was working on this flint I discovered this little fellow who had been trapped in flint for 90 million years. Fossils like this can make flintknapping tricky as they can divert or stop the plane of fracture which forms a flake. But what did I make in the end?
While I was working on this flint I discovered this little fellow who had been trapped in flint for 90 million years. Fossils like this can make flintknapping tricky as they can divert or stop the plane of fracture which forms a flake. But what did I make in the end?
How were handaxes made in the Stone Age?
They were made & used by several different hominin species in the Palaeolithic from just under 2 million years ago up until the last Neanderthal ~ 40,000 yrs ago.
I make these for our prehistoric replicas shop (link in bio)
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
They were made & used by several different hominin species in the Palaeolithic from just under 2 million years ago up until the last Neanderthal ~ 40,000 yrs ago.
I make these for our prehistoric replicas shop (link in bio)
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
November 14, 2024 at 6:34 PM
How were handaxes made in the Stone Age?
They were made & used by several different hominin species in the Palaeolithic from just under 2 million years ago up until the last Neanderthal ~ 40,000 yrs ago.
I make these for our prehistoric replicas shop (link in bio)
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
They were made & used by several different hominin species in the Palaeolithic from just under 2 million years ago up until the last Neanderthal ~ 40,000 yrs ago.
I make these for our prehistoric replicas shop (link in bio)
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
Our replica Bronze Age Basal looped spears are back in stock!
3300-3125 years ago, these spears would have been the primary weapon of a warrior while swords were still developing. They were effective for slashing & thrusting.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
3300-3125 years ago, these spears would have been the primary weapon of a warrior while swords were still developing. They were effective for slashing & thrusting.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
November 13, 2024 at 6:36 PM
Our replica Bronze Age Basal looped spears are back in stock!
3300-3125 years ago, these spears would have been the primary weapon of a warrior while swords were still developing. They were effective for slashing & thrusting.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
3300-3125 years ago, these spears would have been the primary weapon of a warrior while swords were still developing. They were effective for slashing & thrusting.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
🎥 @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
Made in their hundreds to fell thousands...
A tool that changed the British landscape above and below ground was the Neolithic axe. From around 6000 years ago they were produced in huge to fell the Mesolithic forest.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
A tool that changed the British landscape above and below ground was the Neolithic axe. From around 6000 years ago they were produced in huge to fell the Mesolithic forest.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
November 23, 2023 at 5:44 PM
Made in their hundreds to fell thousands...
A tool that changed the British landscape above and below ground was the Neolithic axe. From around 6000 years ago they were produced in huge to fell the Mesolithic forest.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
A tool that changed the British landscape above and below ground was the Neolithic axe. From around 6000 years ago they were produced in huge to fell the Mesolithic forest.
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
From the time of Stonehenge (and many more monuments) - The Bronze Age flanged axe. We now offer large and small axes on the replicas shop in a freshly cast, polished, decorated and even full hafted state!
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
November 21, 2023 at 6:41 PM
From the time of Stonehenge (and many more monuments) - The Bronze Age flanged axe. We now offer large and small axes on the replicas shop in a freshly cast, polished, decorated and even full hafted state!
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/product-page...
📸: @emmalouwynjones.bsky.social
We have some Palstave axes back in stock!
From the middle Bronze Age, we currently have the earlier shield pattern type, associated with copper production at the @greatormemines, and the later shelf type based on examples found in the Salcombe Wreck:
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-...
From the middle Bronze Age, we currently have the earlier shield pattern type, associated with copper production at the @greatormemines, and the later shelf type based on examples found in the Salcombe Wreck:
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-...
November 7, 2023 at 6:54 PM
We have some Palstave axes back in stock!
From the middle Bronze Age, we currently have the earlier shield pattern type, associated with copper production at the @greatormemines, and the later shelf type based on examples found in the Salcombe Wreck:
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-...
From the middle Bronze Age, we currently have the earlier shield pattern type, associated with copper production at the @greatormemines, and the later shelf type based on examples found in the Salcombe Wreck:
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-...
We've been a bit quiet online as behind the scenes, our Christmas shop restocking is under way...
If you've put a back in stock request in we'll be aiming to make these available to purchase as a priority. There will also be new workshop dates soon! 🏺⚒️🧪
ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-re…
If you've put a back in stock request in we'll be aiming to make these available to purchase as a priority. There will also be new workshop dates soon! 🏺⚒️🧪
ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-re…
November 6, 2023 at 6:40 PM
We've been a bit quiet online as behind the scenes, our Christmas shop restocking is under way...
If you've put a back in stock request in we'll be aiming to make these available to purchase as a priority. There will also be new workshop dates soon! 🏺⚒️🧪
ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-re…
If you've put a back in stock request in we'll be aiming to make these available to purchase as a priority. There will also be new workshop dates soon! 🏺⚒️🧪
ancientcraft.co.uk/prehistoric-re…
Another successful set of casting workshops and flintknapping at the Weald & Downland museum last weekend. Sword casting remains incredibly popular with our own workshops in Norfolk fully sold out next month! more dates to be added soon 🏺⚒️
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/calendar
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/calendar
October 20, 2023 at 5:38 PM
Another successful set of casting workshops and flintknapping at the Weald & Downland museum last weekend. Sword casting remains incredibly popular with our own workshops in Norfolk fully sold out next month! more dates to be added soon 🏺⚒️
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/calendar
www.ancientcraft.co.uk/calendar
We were delighted to showcase the result of one of our recent projects with Usborne books at New Scientist Live -“24 hours in the Stone Age”. I loved stories like this as a kid, as the Stone Age is often devoid of colours and characters, so helping to create some new ones was very special.🏺⚒️
October 18, 2023 at 5:14 PM
We were delighted to showcase the result of one of our recent projects with Usborne books at New Scientist Live -“24 hours in the Stone Age”. I loved stories like this as a kid, as the Stone Age is often devoid of colours and characters, so helping to create some new ones was very special.🏺⚒️
London before London, a city built on flint-
Beneath the bustling streets of England's capital are train tunnels, Tudor cellars and Medieval plague pits. But long before London was even a settlement, people had lived along the city's famous river for hundreds of thousands of years.
Beneath the bustling streets of England's capital are train tunnels, Tudor cellars and Medieval plague pits. But long before London was even a settlement, people had lived along the city's famous river for hundreds of thousands of years.
October 16, 2023 at 4:28 PM
London before London, a city built on flint-
Beneath the bustling streets of England's capital are train tunnels, Tudor cellars and Medieval plague pits. But long before London was even a settlement, people had lived along the city's famous river for hundreds of thousands of years.
Beneath the bustling streets of England's capital are train tunnels, Tudor cellars and Medieval plague pits. But long before London was even a settlement, people had lived along the city's famous river for hundreds of thousands of years.
We were delighted to be at New Scientist Live again this year with Chris Wakefield from Cambridge Archaeological Unit showcasing the stunning finds from Must Farm. We had over 180 people having a go at Flintknapping and learning about experimental archaeology with Em. 🧪🏺⚒️
October 10, 2023 at 3:36 PM
We were delighted to be at New Scientist Live again this year with Chris Wakefield from Cambridge Archaeological Unit showcasing the stunning finds from Must Farm. We had over 180 people having a go at Flintknapping and learning about experimental archaeology with Em. 🧪🏺⚒️
Finally on Bluesky after some gentle encouragement (thanks @pottedhistory.bsky.social) looking forward to posting some the exciting upcoming projects! Here’s a nice middle Bronze Age basal looped spear based on an example found in Swansea Bay a few years ago for your enjoyment.
October 2, 2023 at 11:03 AM
Finally on Bluesky after some gentle encouragement (thanks @pottedhistory.bsky.social) looking forward to posting some the exciting upcoming projects! Here’s a nice middle Bronze Age basal looped spear based on an example found in Swansea Bay a few years ago for your enjoyment.