Late Middle Ages

Archeopark Mesopotamia (RU)

Member of EXARC
No

Archeopark Mesopotamia (Археопарк Междуречье), just 25 km north from Ulyanovsk, is an archaeological open-air museum and archaeological reservation of 250 hectares. It includes as well a small hotel and an indoor museum. A visit starts with a guided tour which includes demonstration of craftspeople.

The reservation holds so-called forest towns (9th – 12th century AD) as well as traces of the earlier Imenkov Culture (4th – 7th century AD) including iron smelting furnaces and traces of pottery making.
Archeopark Mesopotamia is a successful organiser of larger historic festivals, skill straining and international experimental archaeology conferences.

Book Review: Förestallningar om det Förflutna by Bodil Petersson. Imaginations of the Past, Archaeology and Reconstruction

Author(s)
Roeland Paardekooper 1
Publication Date
The book is written about the Scandinavian situation and for a Scandinavian public, as it is in Swedish. Although not in English and almost ten years old, it is definitely worth a read...

Book Review: Die Knochen- und Geweihgeräte der Feddersen Wierde by Katrin Struckmeyer

Author(s)
Wietske Prummel 1
Publication Date
The purpose of this book, which was originally presented as a dissertation at Hamburg University, is to present the 1,293 bone, antler, horn and ivory tools that were found at the terp settlement Feddersen Wierde in the coastal area of Lower Saxony, Germany, and to decide on the possible functions of the tools.

Public Outreach in the Drents Museum in Assen (NL)

Author(s)
Blue van der Zwan-Deen 1
Publication Date
Part of my job as museum teacher at the Drents Museum in Assen is attending to the all the groups that visit our museum. This includes the great number of children, both elementary school and high school students, that visit our museum. A lot of children think of a museum as a boring place where there is nothing to do but look at old paintings...

International Learning Partnership: Living History and Adult Education in the Museum

Author(s)
Susanne Wiermann 1
Publication Date
Many archaeological open-air museums and museums with indoor reconstructions choose to interpret history using the method of ‘living history’, or re-enactments. If one only counts the German references, there is wide variety of terms used by museums when they talk of ‘living history’...

Archaeological Open-Air Museums in the Netherlands, a Bit of History

Author(s)
Roeland Paardekooper 1
Publication Date
This article is a result of my interest in, and experience with, archaeological open-air museums. With the start of HOME Eindhoven in 1982, I became actively involved in these museums and I was one of the people involved from the first moment in EXARC. From 2005 onward, I have been conducting postgraduate research at the University of Exeter into archaeological open-air museums...

Discussion: Archaeological Reconstruction in Situ

Author(s)
John H. Jameson 1,2,3,4,
Wulf Hein 5 ✉,
Hannah Simons 6,
Heather Hopkins 7,
Paul Bidwell 8,
Hans Trauner 9,
Marquardt Lund 10,
Renger Elburg 11,
Gary Ball 12,
Martin Müller 13
Publication Date

A view of John H. Jameson (USA)

At historic sites, monuments, and parks, the process of effective interpretation allows each visitor to find an opportunity to personally connect with a resource or place. Each individual may connect to the place in a different way, and some may not connect immediately, but everyone should have an opportunity to explore how that special site or place is meaningful to them.