wood

The heat of a fire depends on the type of fuel and the quantity of added oxygen. A simple wood fire can reach about 700 - 800 ° C.

Nowadays, strict fire safety rules are set at parks like Archeon. Therefore, in all houses, we have fire extinguishers present. The city council in medieval times, however, already applied rules.

Wood is a material, which conserves poorly in the soil as it decays. Only in water the conservation is better, as the wood is sealed off from the air...

To the Lusatian Culture. Biskupin is dated according to the latest dendrochronological study on 750 - 700 BC.

In this region, there is a long history – since the 16th century - of protected forests. Wood was very important because of the vicinity to the open sea and the „woodless“ marshlands. This had the consequence that there was no agricultural use in younger times in this region!

Medieval shoes had merely a thin sole. To prevent this from wearing out too fast, but also in order to prevent the feet from getting wet, people wore wooden shoes called "trip". These are a kind of wooden slippers which could be worn over the shoe. Experiments show that such shoes are worn out after a couple of months. Probably the medieval people then bought a new pair or had the old ones fixed.

Probably, there were already tradesmen in iron and coal. Iron came form Germany, Sweden and the UK. Here there are locations where iron ore is found at the surface. Coal came from Germany...

Indeed the hand saw is frequently used in our medieval village. But we use the axe even more: for construction wood, fire wood, you name it. The saw dust and small pieces of wood which remain are not thrown away...

Two methods were used to make fire. One was by striking a special piece of iron (strike-a-light) on a piece of flint. The other method is by friction of wood on wood. The strike-a-light was most common. Sometimes people used the back of a knife to strike sparks. Friction of wood on wood (“the old-fashioned way”) was used at religious occasions...

No beds are known from the Netherlands from the early Middle ages. In Oseberg and Gokstad (Norway) two beds were found. They look surprisingly modern: they even have a slatted bed base...