The Langobardenwerkstatt Zethlingen is part of the Johann-Friedrich-Danneil-Museum in Salzwedel and serves as an educational centre for the Museums of the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel. It shows life and culture of people from the Roman Iron Age in the Altmark.
The museum is located on the former excavation site of an elbgermanic burial ground and workshop area. Since 1820, excavations on the Mühlenberg (mill hill) have unearthed more than 2000 cremation graves from the 2-6th century AD and several iron smelting furnaces. In the direct vicinity of today’s village, a contemporary settlement with several pit houses was excavated.
The Langobardenwerkstatt started in 1990 parallel to ongoing excavations as a place for experimental archaeology with experiments on iron smelting, house constructions, limekilns, pottery, textile crafts etc. Therefore we show several reconstructions of typical pit houses and other buildings from the Roman Iron Age in the western Altmark, expanded by areas for educational purposes and an exhibition about the archaeological site.
Our focus are educational days for schools and other groups, which can be booked from May until September. These have a strong hands-on approach where our visitors can learn tablet-weaving, pottery, carving, felting, archery and much more.
On regular open workshop-days and the holiday workshops for children our trusted team of employees and volunteers is supported by germanic and roman reenactors. On these days, we specialize on different topics like for example clothing, food and drink, metallurgy, hairstyles and make-up, weapons etc. Highlights are always our famous pea soup and the langobardic triathlon.
