Neolithic

The “Stone Age Park Dithmarschen” in Albersdorf (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) is being reconstructed as a Neolithic cultural landscape from ca. 3.000 BC. Lying close to megalithic tombs and grave mounds dating from the first farmers in Northern Germany, the site offers educational activities like flint knapping, archery and leatherwork.

The archaeological open-air museum at Unteruhldingen is situated at the Lake Constance in the very south of Germany. It dates back to as long ago as 1922 when the first two ‘Stone Age’ houses were constructed. All reconstructions since (22 so far) are based on lake dwelling excavations in and around the Alps dating to the Stone and Bronze Age.

At Āraiši Ezerpils Archaeological Park you can discover and explore dwellings from Stone Age to Middle Ages. There are reconstructions of Stone Age huts and a Bronze Age building that are built according to research data from excavations in Latvia and North-Eastern Europe. The main object in is the reconstruction of a Viking Age lake settlement in its original location – on a small island in Lake Āraiši. Right next to the reconstruction, there are original Medieval castle ruins built by the Teutonic Order in the 14th century.

Parco Archeologico didattico del Livelet is an open-air museum based on the western shore of Lago lake, in the municipality of Revine Lago, province of Treviso. The area is located in a glacial valley at the foothills of the Pre-Alps (225m a.s.l.), surrounded by a rich naturalistic environment, Site of Community Importance (S.I.C.) for Natura 2000 and included in the recent naturalistic park “Parco dei Laghi della Vallata”.

Butser Ancient Farm is situated in the South East of England, approximately 50 miles to the south of London. The concept of replicating an ancient farm began life in 1970 as a research project developed by the Council for British Archaeology and the Research Committee on Ancient Agriculture from the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The educational Parc Arqueològic de Sant Llorenç de Montgai in Catalonia is an educational and leisure installation designed by the CEPAP (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) to bring schoolchildren and families closer to prehistoric ways of life and to the research methods that archaeology uses to broaden its knowledge, and to the preservation of cultural heritage in archaeological sites and the landscape surrounding them.

After 15 years of preparation, 1994 the first Dutch archaeological theme park opened in Alphen aan den Rijn, not far from The Hague, Utrecht and Amsterdam, an area which houses 6 million inhabitants. Archeon covers 10,000 years of human development in the Netherlands. From hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age and farmers in the Bronze and Iron Ages, through the Roman period and right up to everyday life in 1340 AD, “Archaeo-interpreters” show what life was like in “their time” in the 43 reconstructed buildings

Southeast of Bielefeld near the Teutoburger Forrest, one finds the Archäologisches Freilichtmuseum Oerlinghausen (AFM), originally founded by the “Reichsverband für Deutsche Vorgeschichte” as a political presentation of the Germanic people. The combination of man, nature and technique is made tangible and understandable here.