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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. Their identity strongly depends on several occurrences, such as the period in which they were founded, the stakeholders who conceived them (private, public, entrepreneurs, academics, amateurs, et cetera), and the cultural paradigms on which they rely. Given the different circumstances that shape them, it is not easy to draw a prototype of an AOAM, and many typologies of sites can easily follow under this name. Starting from these premises, this contribution intends to introduce the first AOAM's classification, based on two main attributes, such as the chronological periods displayed and the location of the AOAM. The article aims to propose a shared terminology to easily describe the AOAMs and refer to their main characteristics with a short and straightforward formula.

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. Like in any other museum, our challenge is to save and document information, especially information relating to practical work techniques and craft skills, in a sustainable way for future museum generations. Because of the evolving situation regarding these concerns the Stone Age Park joined Retold in 2020.

After two years of implementing the RETOLD Project, we made a SWOT Analysis of the current stage of using digital technology in the daily activities of open-air museums, as far as documentation, digitization and sharing heritage are concerned. The analysis was made based on the answers from a questionnaire applied in the three partner museums involved in the projects: Stiftung Stadmuseum Berlin (i.e. Museumsdorf Dueppel and Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen, both from Germany) and ASTRA Museum from Romania, first at the beginning of the project, then halfway through its development, and it will also be applied at the end. We must outline from the beginning that there are differences between the three museums regarding their profile - two of them are archaeological open-air museums and one is an ethnographical open-air museum - and also as far as their different institutional capacity, given by the size of the institution and number of personnel, is concerned.

As part of the SUN (#S_U_N) initiative, NGO "Chorna Galych" and colleagues from National and cultural reserve “Davnij Halych”, participated in the “Gyvosios archeologijos dienos Kernavėje XXIII” (Live archaeology day in Kernave - https://www.facebook.com/events/2378148619026377), that was held between July 6-9, 2023. The event was held at the historical and cultural reserve "Kernavės archeologinė vietovė", which is an archaeological monument and considered the ancient capital of Lithuania.

Denmark has a long tradition in educational activities in reconstructed environments. Lejre, Sjælland is one of the oldest examples, but by now the country has over 25 smaller and larger education centres where school children learn about the archaeological past. A number of these sites are also open to the public. You will be able to find most of them via https://exarc.net/venues.

The Scottish Crannog Centre is a small Iron Age Museum, located on the South bank of Loch Tay, near the village of Kenmore. The Centre is currently in the process of moving to a new larger site, just across the waters of Loch Tay to the northern shores. On our journey to our new home of Dalerb we took the decision to embrace sustainability in all its forms and consider how we can highlight certain sustainable practices that can be seen in the archaeological record.

In October 2018, a conference took place in Southern Poland. It was attended mainly by people from Poland and Slovakia, but also included several EXARC members from abroad. The conference was titled “Archaeological Open-Air Museums: Reconstruction and Reenactment – Reality or Fiction?” which is also the title of this book which was published in 2022. The conference was the result of a cooperative project between Poland and Slovakia and took place at the Carpathian Troy Archaeological Open-air Museum near Krosno, Poland. The conference was reviewed in the EXARC Journal here: https://exarc.net/issue-2019-3/mm/conference-review-trzcinica-2018

As our societies become more diverse and the demographics of heritage visitors change, many open-air museums are concerned about how to remain relevant. Making a shift to an activist approach is one way museums can evolve to better serve their visitors and community. Many traditional museums have adopted this approach, but relatively few open-air museums have done so. The experiment presented here tested the potential of a shared authority project in a ‘virtual’ open-air museum. Due to COVID, the study was done in an online format. Participants provided input on how to furnish a virtual roundhouse. They were surveyed before and after the activity about their ability to participate meaningfully in museum work, why they visit museums, and the goals of museums. The virtual format produced two data sets. The high level of consistency between archaeologists and non-archaeologists demonstrates that the public is very capable of engaging in this work at a high level. The survey data reveal that most participants feel more confident about engaging with museum work after completing the activity, and they view museums as a tool for empowerment. The data show that these projects can be effective at engaging visitors and deepening their thinking about the museum.

Since the year 2006 the Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf (AÖZA), Germany, has worked as an officially recognised partner for sustainable development on an institutional base for the Sustainable Development Goals of the UNO on a regional level. In this article the thematic background of the educational work in archaeology and ethnography will be connected with the practice of communication with our visitors in our open-air museum.

The Archaeological Institute of Hamburg University has been offering courses to students in the field of “Experimental Archaeology and Museum Pedagogy”, for over 15 years. These courses take place annually at the Archaeological/Oekological Center Albersdorf (AÖZA).

As part of the EU project RETOLD, the Stadtmuseum Berlin in Germany is responsible for creating standardised documentation strategies for archaeological house models and evaluating them by engaging with the open-air museums of Astra in Romania and the Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen in Germany. In order to start creating these workflows, as a first step, other open-air museum were approached asking them to share their existing documentation forms and workflows, if any. Most open-air museums did not have existing workflows, confirming the need for this project in the first place. Of the 21 Museums approached, six did not reply, eight replied but had no standardised documentation forms and only seven did use regular documentation procedures and shared them with the project.

The origins of the European RETOLD project, led by the international association EXARC, lie in a concern to preserve the heritage generated by archaeological open-air museums through the creation of a standardised system for collecting, digitising and disseminating knowledge (memories) of the processes of building reconstruction and handcrafted objects. The project has a duration of four years (January 2021 to December 2024) and will be realised through the creation of a platform where these memories can be stored in digital format, available both for technical staff and for the non-specialist public through, for example, the creation of narratives (storytelling) derived from the memories.

The motivation and purpose of the RETOLD project is to capture and preserve the wealth of data from evidence informing building reconstructions and craft processes of open-air museums. These data urgently need to be collected and documented in a standardised form, so that they can be used for applied research and thus disseminated to expand knowledge of material and intangible heritage, including stories and traditional craftsmanship. Additionally, the project seeks to develop and use alternative formats of oral histories as a way of share intangible cultural heritage with a wide audience. From an artistic point of view, immersive media are to date under-explored in terms of their creative potential, particularly in cultural and heritage contexts.

This book is particularly welcomed within the scarce Italian literature on the topic of archaeological open-air museums. The lack of debate and accurate information on this type of museums in Italy, drove the author to put together this volume, seven years after the publication of Dr Paardekooper’s magistral “The Value of an Archaeological Open-Air Museum in its use” in 2012, often referred in this book.

Archaeological site museums may not be that well defined worldwide, yet, they are found almost everywhere. Archaeological sites with reconstructed buildings based on archaeology however seem to be a younger phenomenon and are mainly concentrated in Europe, Japan and North America. Both types of museums however have old roots. Important is not so much the site per se, but the message the management wants to bring across, how they like the site to be interpreted. Reconstruction is then one of the options. Prospects for archaeological sites with a museum function are, like for all museums, critical: one must find relevance of the museum in modern society.

The conference in Documentation Strategies in (Archaeological) Open-air Museums, organised through the Experimental Archaeology Society (EXARC), was due to be held in Berlin on March 26th and 27th 2020. Unfortunately, the first half of March 2020 saw the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic throughout Europe which caused the implementation of government restrictions on travel and public gatherings. It seemed as if the EXARC Berlin conference, along with so many other archaeological events, would have to be cancelled. However, the organisers were determined to see it through, and so decided to adapt the event to an online platform. The speakers had already been asked to provide a recorded version of their presentations in case of individual Coronavirus-related cancellations, and so these recorded talks were used instead as the main content. Each video was uploaded to YouTube and a Discord page provided as a channel for discussion and questions during the course of the conference.

An EXARC 'call to arms' to reevaluate and develop your Open-Air Museum's interpretation strategy. The year 2020 started out for museums as usual, with plans for new exhibitions, new buildings even, and above all many events and visitors. Soon we saw how wrong we were. Open-air museums who had prepared to open up for the season found out that COVID-19 meant they were sitting ducks: no visitors, no income, no life in the museum area. The situation will not return to 'normal', we will have to think again about everything we were used to in our work. This article is an EXARC 'call to arms' to reevaluate and develop your Open-Air Museum's interpretation strategy.

Archaeological open-air museums form a colourful and varied assemblage of heritage institutions. These are places where stories about the past, inspired by archaeology, are presented. Their obvious use is for experimental archaeology, ancient crafts and live interpretation. However, these museums can be more relevant to society than meets the eye. They can teach newcomers about the past of their new habitation region; they can teach people fundamental learning in order to better cope with society and can show the big picture of environmental sustainability spanning millennia. Finally, archaeological open-air museums can teach their visitors a valuable lesson about political conscience and citizenship, including a debate on fake news. International cooperation is increasingly important for archaeological open-air museums and a necessity to survive and thrive. EXARC is an important network helping exactly with this. These museums need to improve, to believe in their strengths and unique selling points, and find new directions. A previous version of this article was published in German (Paardekooper, 2019).

Considering actual studies about the analysis of ancient DNA is an important question, if only the lifestyle or the population, too, changed when hunter-gatherers became farmers and stockbreeders. The results point so far towards the latter possibility. However, the foragers of the Northern European Ertebølle culture preserved their lifestyle for one millennium, even though they lived in neighboring areas with the Neolithic societies. It is debatable if the Mesolithic lifestyle and an environment with plentiful natural food resources made it unnecessary for the bearers of the Ertebølle culture to change their ways. In fact, only very little is known about this Mesolithic lifestyle, and the stone artefacts along with a few organic remains, which are naturally preserved, are the sole providers of clues.

Some people believe that an open-air museum is a place where you leave your modern technique behind and go ‘low tech’. Other than the museums which act like digital free zones, many others experiment with going digital. Where experience and storytelling have always been the central concepts of archaeological open-air museums, exactly these ideas are behind many digital techniques. We have to pick up the public where they are and approach them as they are. We should use all the means at our audience hands to reach them, and not only in the open air, also in the digital world.

The traditional way of engaging the public with the past has changed: now, through experimental archaeology, we can have a direct, physical contact with the “past”. But, as researchers know, the means used to engage the public are the fruits of an active process of investigation, especially in experimental archaeology. Could it be possible to enable visitors to actively engage in the questioning of the past, to let them experience the discovery process? In this paper, which illustrates the work-in-progress of my PhD (Exploring the uses of Experimental Archaeology at European AOAMs, IRC GOIPG/2017, UCD, Dublin IE), the preliminary results of a qualitative inquiry on experimental archaeology best practices will be illustrated. The study is observing the experimental archaeology phenomenon from a social science perspective highlighting the interactions existing among three major categories (AOAMs, Academic Institutions, and Independent Activities). In detail, the survey was designed to produce data on the meaning constellations under the umbrella term “experimental archaeology”, to explore research potential in the dynamic among the categories under scrutiny, and to provide a baseline for the mapping of job market interactions.

Jutta Eberhards has been working with drama and living history for over 30 years. Born in the Friesland district in Germany, Jutta has over the years become a power-house in the management group of Sagnlandet Lejre – The Land of Legends (www.sagnlandet.dk). She has been tirelessly working to uphold the standards of the educational method that she and her colleagues developed: Teacher in role and Presenter in role. In character as a Viking, Jutta inhabits the role of Japke, a völva and Viking woman. In this work, Jutta showed courage and open-mindedness in developing reenactment as a pedagogical and educational method, at a time when this was still relatively unknown in Danish museums and historical centres. Since then, the work of Jutta and her colleagues has inspired other historical institutions to take on living history and reenactment – in historical character and costumes – as an essential part of the presenter’s tools, either following the Lejre method directly or finding inspiration for developing methods of their own.

And so EXARC met again, this time in Lithuania, in Kernavė – an early medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This picturesque village was the location for the conference “Archaeology for the People” which EXARC co-organised with the State Cultural Reserve of Kernavė and with IMTAL-Europe. The Reserve of Kernavė is an old member of EXARC. IMTAL-Europe is a long-time cooperation partner of EXARC; they are, as is IMTAL-Europe with whom we previously organised a conference. a network for live historic costumed Interpretation.

Björn M Buttler Jakobsen has recently turned 70. He has worked presenting history and archaeology since the 1970s. His background is as an engineer, film maker, entrepreneur and he can also call himself marine archaeologist.

In early March, three EXARC members organized a networking day focusing on archaeology, education and living history. They invited museum colleagues from both indoor and outdoor museums; ship wharfs building reconstructions of old ships, craftspeople, academics and entrepreneurs in these areas. Their motivation came from the knowledge that even in a small country like the Netherlands there is much to learn from people or organisations working with similar themes and issues. Following on from that, the sector is getting larger: we now see more living history events, reconstructions, and hands-on exhibitions and we are becoming more professional in our approaches.

Museums are among the most visited attractions in the UK (ALVA 2015), and with interactive displays and active engagement becoming more commonplace, this success can be capitalised on by archaeological open-air museums. Some European archaeological open-air museums entertain many visitors per year, although most are smaller institutions (Paardekooper 2012). Whilst footfall and support of visitors is important in determining the stability of such sites, it is their management that determines attractiveness to visitors. To determine these aspects, a questionnaire was filled in by seven EXARC affiliated archaeological open-air museums in the UK examining financial, social and staff stability, as well as any additional affiliations.

As with any other science, archaeology constantly adopts new methods and trends over time. University education in the field can be very helpful advancing sciences in every country. This type of education influences the early stages of future top scientists and forms their future careers. Therefore, education should reflect not only scientific innovations but also innovative educational methods. In archaeology we do not often incorporate such an approach. We all know from our own experiences, though, that playful diversions can bring positive results, regardless of the students’ age.

Over the last few years, a lot of different digital communication technologies for the transfer / transmission of audio-visual informations have been developed, some very sophisticated, some very complicated (and expensive) and in recent times mostly based on applications for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. For museums, these new technologies are a chance to provide additional information and services to visitors, to stay in contact with them after the museum visit, and also to reach new target groups.

The five year OpenArch project concluded in 2015. It was an effort to create a permanent partnership between Archaeological Open-Air Museums (or, AOAMs) in Europe. The project saw eleven participating organisations come together to – among other objectives – produce work packages that would be accessible to people with an interest in the workings of AOAMs.

The topic of Living History is a controversial one, with diverse opinions on its subject matter. To begin with: What does the term Living History mean? And in what context do we discuss it? Living History has long been utilized as a method of experiencing history and cultural exchange in open-air museums, especially outside of Germany.

For almost 25 years, Mamoun Fansa has been one of the defining personalities within the discipline of experimental archaeology. In 1990, he introduced his exhibition `Experimental Archaeology in Germany’. The exposition continued to circulate all over Germany and Europe for the next 14 years. It has helped museums, innovators, and many others, to develop a platform for creative thinking in archaeology.

Due to the inclusion program at schools in North Rhine Westphalia, the need arose to organise guided tours through the museum in such a way that visually impaired participants could be included in the experience. The idea was to offer an additional level of experiencing information through touch, by creating individual purpose-made objects in combination with narratives depending on the educational objectives as a key term for a humane society that respects diversity. The measure is funded by the Westphalian Museum Office.

For many archaeological open-air museums (AOAMs), volunteers are an essential and highly visible component of an effective institution. Volunteers bring museums to life with meaningful interpretive contacts, and offer institutions the opportunity to broaden their mission and complete tasks that may not otherwise be possible. Current trends in heritage institutions predict ever-shrinking budgets, and with extra demands on staff, it is likely that museums will depend more and more on volunteers. Indeed, many museums already depend on them just to keep the lights on, while others are completely staffed by volunteers. As such, volunteers are essential for the long-term sustainability of these organisations. The goal of this study is to report how volunteers are currently used within archaeological open-air museums, and to continue the discussion with regard to best practises for volunteer management.

This is an extract from a lengthy and lively Facebook discussion in the Archaeological Open Air Museums group, started on the 5th of February 2016 by Roeland Paardekooper, at that time in the Archäologisches Freilichtmuseum Oerlinghausen.

MAMUZ is the new name that combines the Lower Austrian museum of prehistory Niederösterreich Asparn/Zaya and the museum centre Museumszentrum Mistelbach to create a centre of experiences and knowledge covering 40,000 years of the history of the human race. Using the example of its archaeological open-air site, the museum of prehistory MAMUZ aims to show how strategic measures between the two apparently contrary—but actually closely connected—areas of archaeology and tourism can lead to effective academic and economic cooperation.

This article is a summary of a presentation held at the conference in Mistelbach in 2015, “Archaeological Reconstructions and Tourism”. The conference topic leads us to a more consistent approach to reconstructions and tourism. All who work in the heritage sector know that all types of museums have a great influence on the tourism sector. What I want to discuss is whether this comes spontaneously, or to consider the possibility that there is a formula resulting in this influence? Furthermore, what is the cost of attracting tourism? Do we need large investments in reconstructions? Do we need reconstructions of natural scale at all? All of these questions, and others, were raised during my research on the management of archaeological parks, where the main research question was “under what conditions can an organisation survive in the market”(Breznik 2014).

The purpose of Universal Design is to increase people’s opportunities to participate in society through the design of products, services, methods of communication, buildings and built-up spaces that are accessible to as many as possible. Many will suffer from some form of disability at some time in life, either temporarily or long-term. Disability is best viewed as yet another aspect of the diversity of humankind. By applying the principles of Universal Design to shared spaces and media, it is possible to create general solutions that cater to many, while avoiding the need to implement special solutions for various groups. The terminology of Universal Design is not limited to building or architecture, but is equally important in sectors such as education, information, design, et cetera (Rogaland County Authority 2014).

EXARC and Urgeschichtemuseum MAMUZ Schloss Asparn/Zaya joined forces to organise an international conference from the 25th to 27th of September 2015, held in Mistelbach, near Vienna focusing on Archaeological Reconstructions and Tourism. The conference “Archaeological Reconstructions and Tourism” showed, how strategic cooperation between the two apparently opposed, but still closely related areas - archaeology and tourism- can develop into a scientifically, but also economically effective collaborative project. On the other hand, there is an ever-present danger of showing a constructed idealisation of a historical epoch, which could be transmitted to the public.

At Butser Ancient Farm our aim is to help visitors understand more about life in Britain in the distant past. We are also determined to give all our visitors a good experience when they visit. To promote this for every visitor, we need to be aware of the needs of our visitors, whatever they may be. Our visitors come from a wide range of backgrounds and have a wide range of needs that must be addressed if they are to get the most from their visit.

Over 25 years I have actively worked with knowledge dissemination and bringing history alive. From this experience I have concluded that it has been among the most fantastic developments since museums first started.

Over the years my personal research interests have focussed on the less tangible elements of the past, such as gender issues (Hurcombe 1995, Donald and Hurcombe 2000), perishable material culture (2014), and the sensory worlds of the past (2007a), but all of these have been underpinned by a longstanding appreciation of the role experimental archaeology can play as both a research tool and as an aid for public presentation (Hurcombe 2004, 2007b, Ch 4, 2008; Van de Noort et al. 2014). The OpenArch project (a five-year cultural project funded by the EU) has given me the opportunity to establish a close working relationship with those presenting the past in archaeological open-air museums. Exeter is the only University in the partnership which is formed from nine other partners from a diverse cross-section of open air museums, and the eleventh partner is the organisation EXARC. This has placed me in a unique position as an academic researcher. I have been able to build on my own research interests in this sector and we have had many interesting discussions arising from this interaction. This paper articulates a fundamental aspect of research and open-air museums: the relationship between tangible and intangible knowledge. Ever since first visiting open air museums as a student the value and unique position of such museums has been clear to me: they have to present intangible knowledge, making it tangible: they have to deal with the unknown as well as the known. This is both their unique contribution and their dilemma.

In late May 2015, St Fagans National History Museum in Wales organized a three day meeting in and around Cardiff for OpenArch. This is a European Culture Project with 11 partners that work to improve archaeological open-air museums. The first day of the meeting was a conference on issues and trends in archaeological open-air museums, with the second day being a large craft festival at St Fagans’ open-air museum. The third day was spent in and around Big Pit, the National Coal Museum. This review is about the first day.

The paper summarizes preliminary findings of a research project on the use of museum theatre in Greek open-air sites, as a part of a PhD thesis. The research focuses on the exploration of the development, use and function of museum theatre in Greek open-air sites based on available secondary resources and primary research, which included site visits, interviews and data analysis. The research summarized here was carried out in 2012 and presented in September 2012, in the OpenArch Conference "Museum interpretation and public engagement: Challenges and opportunities", in Höllviken, Sweden.

How a museum communicates to its audience has changed significantly in the past decades. With the introduction of the Internet and the creation of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, social media has become an integrated part of the everyday life of the majority of museum visitors. Furthermore, the way in which museums understand their visitors has changed considerably also, as museums now for example talk of users instead of audiences.

Question: What has 40,000 legs, likes to tell stories and pops up all over Europe? Answer: An archaeological open-air museum. OK, not the most brilliant riddle in the world, but the point is that with publication of Dr Paardekooper’s monograph we now, finally, have a secure databank of facts and figures relating to archaeological open-air museums in Europe, including management structures, key financial indicators, visitor profiles and visitor numbers (average of 20,000 visitors a year per site, hence those 40,000 busy little feet).

By mid-2012, the Learning Partnership Didarchtik had come to an end with a last workshop at Butser Ancient Farm in the UK. Many subjects we had touched on over the previous two years were back on the table – just as needed: this was the moment to look back on our experiences and see if we had learned something. Besides wrapping up our experiences, it was an extra-long workshop that including getting to know one of the oldest archaeological open-air museums in the UK.

This article is based on personal experiences and observations conducted through many years as a volunteer at the Middle Age Centre in Denmark and later as a student at the Open Air Museum, Sorgenfri, Denmark. Observations and remarks made are solely personal and the article reflects thoughts I have had throughout the years. The article is based on a report I wrote during a class at university in 2009 and many things may have changed in the way both museums incorporate living history. However, the points made are still valid.

Archaeological site museums may not be that well defined worldwide, yet, they are found almost everywhere. Archaeological sites with reconstructed buildings based on archaeology however seem to be a younger phenomenon and are mainly concentrated in Europe, Japan and North America. Both types of museums however have old roots. Important is not so much the site per se, but the message the management wants to bring across, how they like the site to be interpreted. Reconstruction is then one of the options. Prospects for archaeological sites with a museum function are, like for all museums, critical: one must find relevance of the museum in modern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not so much: "what can society do for museums", but "what canmuseums do for society", a continued appeal to museums to step outof the glass case that surrounds them and bridge with other entitiesin society. Archaeological open-air museums should aim to find common groundwith their visitors, they should answer the question: why is thestory my museum is telling relevant to visitors? We need each other to see what is on the horizon for allthese museums; that is the added value of international cooperation.EXARC builds bridges between the museums, offering a structure tolean back upon and a common language between museum professionals. Also, with a language barrier, our museums are the perfectplace to explain, in a hands-on manner, about the past of the regionaround the museum: New Land to the refugees, Old Land to others. [Extracted from the article]