Archaeological Open-Air Museum

Çatalhöyük (TR)

Member of EXARC
No

The ancient town of Çatalhöyük appears today as a large hill on the Anatolian plain. However the grass and soil conceal a settlement that was once lived in by 3,500 to 8,000 people more than 9,000 years ago. This concentrated farming community produced exceptional art and architecture for its time, making it one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.

There is a full-sized reconstruction of a typical Çatalhöyük home on site. It is open to visit, and also used by archaeologists to test their theories about the past. This first house has aided researchers in exploring how bricks were made, how fires were maintained in the ovens, how pigments and plaster were used on the walls, how bodies were buried in the floors. In 2016, four more replica buildings were constructed and opened in 2017.

Bakone Malapa Open-Air Museum (ZA)

Member of EXARC
No

This museum invites visitors to take a step back in time and explore a traditional Bakone tribal village, as it existed about 250 years ago. This open-air museum gives visitors the opportunity to gain insight into the background and history of the Bakone people who are a subgroup of the Northern Sotho tribe.

Bakone Malapa literally means Bakone Homestead and the village, set on the original site of an ancient village, and has been superbly reconstructed in the traditional Northern Sotho way.
Tours are conducted at various set times throughout the day and the guides are gifted story-tellers. They are informative when it comes to the ancient culture and history of the Bakone and they put their message across in an entertaining way. Two lapas (homesteads) in the Bakone Malapa Museum contain exhibits that give details of the Bakone’s long and interesting history.

Zaporizhzhya Sich (UA)

Member of EXARC
No

Khortytsya is the largest island in the River Dnieper: 12.5 kilometres long and up to 2.5 kilometres wide. The island forms part of the Khortytsya National Park. The Historical and Cultural Complex Zaporizhzhya Sich (Запорозька Січ), located in the north-east of the island of Khortytsya in Zaporizhzhya, is a reconstruction of the Cossack fortress of the 16th-18th centuries, recreating the image of the Cossack capital and the atmosphere of the time.

Despite the fact that there is no evidence for the existence of a Sich-fortress on the island Khortytsya, this picturesque town is harmoniously blended into the surrounding natural landscape, especially emphasizing the bright atmosphere of the time.
The Historical and Cultural Complex Zaporozhzhya Sich has become one collective image of all that existed in the days of the Cossack Sich. It brings together the most interesting elements of architecture, culture, life, and the life of the Zaporozhye Cossacks.

Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskiy Folk Museum (UA)

Member of EXARC
No

At the ethnographic open-air museum in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskiy (near Kyiv) you can find the wooden houses and places of worship of the 17th – 19th centuries as well as reconstructed buildings of earlier eras.

On the territory there are a numerous of museums (embroidery, ceremonies, transportation, bread, space, museum-mail, etc.). The museum is set in an open-air area of 30 hectares and includes many buildings, museums, churches, and a unique atmosphere. Here you can learn about how different segments of the population lived in the Ukraine in the old days. The museum is an important cultural and educational institutions to help assess the cultural heritage of the past, reveal traces of interference of cultures and see local history of the Middle Dnieper Region.

The Lost World (RU)

Member of EXARC
No

Ethno-archaeological complex "The Lost World" combines research with cultural tourism and recreation. The project is carried out on the initiative and with the participation of the Don Archaeological Society and NP "Yuzharheologiya" . One can visit the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and a Cossack type Village.

The Stone Age Village consists of huts, a sanctuary and workshops. The village refers to the Mesolithic and Neolithic before they had ceramics. The huts are a simple wooden frame covered with two layers of reeds. The door is a piece of leather on a wooden frame. The dimensions are about 5x3 m. and building it took about two weeks and has not been changed in three years - it is well protected from heavy rain in summer and autumn and in winter they stand in 30-50 cm snow.

Ancient Sambia (RU)

Member of EXARC
No

"Ancient Sambia" is an archaeological open-air museum about the Viking on the territory of current Lithuania, Poland and Kaliningrad region neighbouring with the Curonian and Vistula lagoons. The local population in those days were Balts (Prussians and Curonians) and Scandinavians.

Visitors can get familiar with the traditional culture and way of life, with the costumes of the Baltic nations in the Viking Age, but also immerse themselves in the Old Norse atmosphere. on the territory of current Lithuania, Poland and Kaliningrad region neighboring with Curonian and Vistula lagoons. The Vikings and their fighting friends tell their secrets, teach rites of initiation into warriorship and visitors can try their hand in amber processing, the manufacture of weapons and shooting bow and arrow.

Slavic Village X Century (RU)

Member of EXARC
No

The city Lyubytino is one of the oldest centers of the Novgorod region. It has numerous historical and architectural monuments. The area is quite rugged with unique natural landscapes, karst lakes, rapids and waterfalls on the rivers White and Priksha.

Among the vast forests in the lake region, between the rivers and waterfalls one thousand years ago, Slavs built their settlements and built relationships with local Finno-Ugric tribes.

Camlann Medieval Village (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Camlann Medieval Village, a living history museum project portraying rural England in the year 1376, is dedicated to offering the public powerful personal experiences of history, including multiple learning and performing arts opportunities, built upon research of rural communities in 14th century England, to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between those historical events and western society today.

The village is open each weekend from May to the end of September. Village Demonstrations vary each day, and may include archery, blacksmithing, textile production, animal care, artwork, gardening, candle making, hearth cooking, shoemaking, spinning, weaving, clothing design, and other household skills. Presentations provide an in-depth focus on these village activities with the opportunity to interact with knowledgeable villagers, who portray medieval people, discussing their work, their life in the 14th century, and perhaps some village gossip.

Fort Boise Replica & Museum (US)

Member of EXARC
No

First explorations in the area around what now is Parma for a suitable location for a fur trading post took already place in 1811. In the next decade, several attempts to set up an outpost failed because of hostile natives.

In the fall of 1834, Thomas McKay, a veteran leader of the annual Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) Snake Country brigades, built Fort Boise as competition for nearby Fort Hall further east on the Snake River. Although Fort Boise may technically have been built as a private venture of Thomas McKay, it was fully backed and supported by the Hudson Bay Company who took over in 1836. From 1836-1837 onward, Old Fort Boise became an important supply post along the Oregon Trail. The post was a major stop for the wagon trains crossing the Snake River into Oregon.

Chorro de Maíta (CU)

Member of EXARC
No

Chorro de Maíta is located in the foothills of the southeast of Cerro de Yaguajay, in the region known as the Archaeological Capital of Cuba, Banes, in the north of the province of Holguín.

This museum is a replica burial site from the times of the Taíno, indigenous people of Cuba. Intensive excavations took place from 1975 onward. A cemetery was found, covering about 2,000 square metres, with about two hundred burials. 56 of these are now shown in the exact place of discovery, as an in situ museum. It is the first Aboriginal cemetery of ceramist farmers found in Cuba from the period around the arrival of the first Spaniards. Chorro de Maíta is a place of contact with other cultures, not just with the Spanish, but also with the Mexicans.