Newest Era

Our understanding of the planning processes involved before any Neolithic structure was physically built, from the moment when it was conceived in a person’s mind up to the point of its construction requires further investigation for which experimental archaeology can provide some direction...

The Museumsdorf Düppel – a medieval archaeological open-air museum in Berlin – is a good example a bottom-up museum project from the 1970’s. The idea to create an open-air museum was born after the excavation of a medieval settlement had brought to light several house features, wells and objects ranging from pottery sherds to iron artefacts, in south-western Berlin...

The Stone Age Park Dithmarschen in Albersdorf (Germany) is an archaeological open-air museum focussing on the Stone Age. It consists of an outdoor park area of about 40 hectares. This includes archaeological monuments, reconstructed Mesolithic and Neolithic buildings and a recently opened museum building with an exhibition of original artifacts...

RETOLD is a project implemented through the Creative Europe program of the European Union, whose main purpose is the creation of standard documentation tools to be used in open-air museums. Along with creating documentation, craft documentation is an important component of the project that is the subject of this article...

Archaeological Open-Air Museums (AOAMs) are well established in the international museum landscape, and today more than 350 of these sites can be counted in Europe alone. These museums differ considerably from one another, and each of them presents specific and unique features.

On March 13, 2023, my long-time friend Andy Kurzweil, fellow researcher and co-founder of AG Teerschwele (Working Group on Tar) at the Museumsdorf Düppel (Berlin-West Germany), died at home at the age of 78. I met him on my first visit to the Museumsdorf Düppel in 1977 at the tar production area, when I offered him my help...

Open-air archaeological museums are one of the promising directions in museum activities in Ukraine that is rapidly developing. Their main feature is the interactive nature of the exposition, which allows engaging visitors in the historical atmosphere of a certain period. One might use a non-scientific comparison as a portal in time and space...

In Estonia the method of Time Travel has been used for more than 10 years. While the first time travels were conducted in a rather casual and modest way, a change took place in 2016 with the first nationwide project. By today more than 23 000 students have participated in the nationwide time travel events and it has become an important way of cooperation for museums and schools.

In June 2022, the first onsite RETOLD project meeting took place in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), hosted, and organised by the Prehistory department. The meeting in Barcelona was important to introduce the RETOLD project to a wider public of specialists and students, and to test the idea of the web-app for the first time with all partners and some expert guests...