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Experimental Archaeology and Ancient Arts, Martial and Domestic
500 BC to 1815 AD
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Intellectual Culture
Intellectual culture is a vital part of understanding the past. Merely wearing the clothes or the armor can never provide the fullest possible understanding of the thoughts, ideals, and context of the culture we’re studying. In order to recreate even the smallest slice of such a society, and to immerse ourselves in it, we study the intangible aspects of culture such as religion, philosophy, recreation, and politics.
Understanding intellectual culture can prevent errors about material culture and vice-versa. As an example (and there are no simple examples, so bear with us) when recreating 18th c. military drill, it is essential to have a correct weapon—in our portrayals of Captain Fraser’s Company of Rangers we carry the brown bess musket. Without that heavy weapon, it is hard to understand the drill, and that’s material culture. At the same time, to fully understand how to execute the “1764 Manual” it is useful to study the other 200+ manuals of arms published in English and French in the 18th century. This would be a study of intellectual culture.
By reading all of the relevant documents and studying the history of the development of drill, the recreator comes to understand “why” the 1764 manual works the way it does. In addition, because his recreation is no longer limited to a single document, he’s less prone to error. Multiple documents providing multiple angles of approach to the same subject will almost certainly allow the recreator to arrive at something like the “truth.”
One example of our current research into an element of intellectual culture is this article on the Game of Cities played in ancient Greece.