Archaeological Open-Air Museum

Historic Moravian Bethlehem (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Historic Moravian Bethlehem is located in the heart of the City of Bethlehem. The Moravians located their crafts, trades, and industries along the waterways and their dwellings on the limestone bluff above.

The Moravians in Bethlehem lived in a communal society organized into groups, called choirs, and segregated by age, gender, and marital status. Because of that structure, Moravians built large choir houses, superb examples of German Colonial style architecture in America. In addition to living together, Moravians worked together under the General Economy, a system where everyone works and provides for the good of the community and, in return, receives care from birth to death.

Fort Vancouver (US)

Member of EXARC
No

The London-based Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver in 1825 to serve as the headquarters of the Company's interior fur trade. The first Fort Vancouver was located on the bluff to the northeast of the fort's current location, where it was relocated in 1829.

The fort served as the core of the HBC's western operations, controlling the fur business from Russian Alaska to Mexican California, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Vancouver was the principal colonial settlement in the Pacific Northwest, and a major centre of industry, trade, and law.
The Village to the west of the fort was Vancouver's first neighbourhood. The employees of the Hudson's Bay Company lived there with their families in simple one or two room cabins. The Village was incredibly diverse, a community of people whose homelands spanned half the globe.

Fort Union Trading Post (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Between 1828 and 1867, Fort Union was the most important fur trade post on the Upper Missouri River. Here, the Assiniboine and six other Northern Plains Indian Tribes exchanged buffalo robes and smaller furs for goods from around the world, including cloth, guns, blankets, and beads.

By the 1920s, America’s longest-lived trade post, Fort Union, was little more than barely visible bumps and depressions. Its legacy lived on in former traders’ memories and journals. The nearby town of Mondak thrived. To capitalize on and promote tourism, North Dakota residents desired to reconstruct the fort. Unfortunately, the Great Depression and the Second World War put a halt to reconstruction plans.

Fort Roberdeau Historic Site (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Fort Roberdeau is a Blair County Park. The park grounds consist of over 200 acres of land in the scenic setting of Sinking Valley. The grounds are open to the public year round 8am until sunset. Although the fort is only open to tours part of the year, there are other activities available at the site year round. Picnic tables, pathways, geocaching, a lot of space to walk and wander and cross country skiing in the winter.

The fort, also known as The Lead Mine Fort, is a reconstruction of the original fort that stood here in the 18th Century. The original fort was built in 1778, during the American Revolution to help supply the Continental forces with lead for ammunition. The original fort was built of horizontal logs with a bastion at each corner. It was a cabin fort, with 48 cabins in the initial structure, which helped reinforce the walls. General Daniel Roberdeau organized and paid for the construction.

Fort Necessity (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Rival claims between the French and the English to the vast territory along the Ohio River between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi approached a climax about 1750.

Fort Necessity was built in 1754 in an attempt of the British to regain control of the area form the French, who had built Fort Presque Isle near Lake Erie and Fort Le Boeuf in that part of the Ohio country claimed by Virginia. The French force immediately drove off the Virginians and built a larger fort on the site. Among others, this led to the war between the French and the British. Terrorized settlers streamed eastward and the war spread. In the ensuing decade, however, France lost all her colonies in North America and the British Empire was expanding around the globe.

Fort Hall Replica (US)

Member of EXARC
No

A visit to the Fort Hall Replica is to enter the 19th Century world of explorers, trappers, fur traders, Native Americans, pioneers, Gold seekers, historic figures, and common folk; all of whom visited the place called Fort Hall on the banks of the Snake River in what is now Southeast Idaho.

The area at the Snake River was known for centuries as a favourable fur region. The earliest white men in the region arrived in the years 1810-1812. In 1834, Mr Wyeth from New England founded Fort Hall. Not many years later however, the Hudson Bay Company constructed a rival fort near the junction of Boise River with the Snake. They named the post Fort Boise, its purpose was simply to drive Fort Hall out of business. In 1837 Wyeth sold out to the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1843, the "Great Migration" to the Willamette Valley of Oregon began.

Aktopraklık Höyük Açıkhava Müzesi ve Arkeoloji Okulu (TR)

Member of EXARC
No

The Aktopraklık Höyük Open-Air Museum and Archaeology School is run by the Istanbul University Department of Prehistory. The foundation of this cultural heritage management project is the archaeological evidence from the excavation conducted at the prehistoric mound of Aktopraklık.

The Aktopraklık Höyük Open-Air Museum and Archaeology School is run by the Istanbul University Department of Prehistory. The foundation of this cultural heritage management project is the archaeological evidence from the excavation conducted at the prehistoric mound of Aktopraklık...

Bent’s Old Ford (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site features a reconstructed 1840s adobe fur trading post on the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail where traders, trappers, travelers, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes came together in peaceful terms for trade. Today, living historians recreate the sights, sounds, and smells of the past with guided tours, demonstrations and special events.

William and Charles Bent, along with Ceran St. Vrain, built the original fort on this site in 1833 to trade with plains Indians and trappers. The adobe fort quickly became the centre of the Bent, St.Vrain Company's expanding trade empire that included Fort St.Vrain to the north and Fort Adobe to the south, along with company stores in Mexico at Taos and Santa Fe. The primary trade was with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians for buffalo robes.

Barrington Living History Farm (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Barrington Living History Farm is located within Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site, which is located 18 miles northeast of Brenham and seven miles southwest of Navasota.

Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site encompasses 290 acres and was created in 1916. Barrington Living History Farm is a recreated 1850s Brazos valley cotton plantation. The centrepiece of the farm is the 1844 home of Dr Anson Jones, last President of the Republic of Texas. The Anson Jones home is the original structure built in 1844 and was moved to Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site as part of the Texas Centennial Celebration in 1936. The outbuildings were recreated based on typical Texas architecture of the mid-19th century and information found in Dr.

Nysäter Vikingacenter (SE)

Member of EXARC
No

In 2009, the Värmlands Vikingacenter, a centre entirely devoted to the history of the Vikings, opened to visitors at Värmland, on the northern shore of lake Vänern, in southwest Sweden.

Extensive meadowland next to the river, which flows into the Harefjorden, reproduces a Viking Age environment where, during the summer months, demonstrations of handcraft techniques are performed and theme-based markets take place. A modern structure houses an exhibition that is well-known to enthusiasts: it consists mainly of scale reproductions of daily activities performed in a Viking port. These were previously displayed at the Jorvik Viking Center in York (England - UK), and acquired with the help of local associations.