Archeoland Lupo Azzuro (IT)
A stone, a fragment of pottery surfacing from the soil; the remains of people who have gone before us: who made them and how? Why? Archeoland, founded by Renato Fasolo, is a didactic park with both archaeological sites and reconstructed areas.
It usually is not open to tourists, only to school groups. It is visited annually by hundreds of school classes. The association behind the project (Archeoland – Lupo Azzuro) is active since 1980 and intends to organise scientific and educational archaeological activities. The project is situated in a regional natural reserve in a valley surrounded by streams with waterfalls and old watermills.
A visit to Archeoland is about learning about the past as well as learning to observe, analyse and a critical interpretation of the phenomena that underlie the scientific method. Archeoland offers its visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in the reality of different prehistoric ages, documented by archaeological reconstructions and experimental activities. Themed with the hunter-gatherers of the Palaeolithic, children visit a reconstruction of a shelter in the rock completely "decorated" with skins, flint and bone tools, spears, carvings, coloured red and yellow with ochre, showing horns and other objects of daily life. They learn to draw “Palaeolithic art” by using charcoal and ochre. They also observe flint knapping to understand the different types of tools possible to be made of this. By the way, Flint also make good music instruments. The principles of evolution are taught here.
The second area is about the first farmers, of the Neolithic (4500 BC). They get to see the difference in tools with the Palaeolithic, look at pottery production and baking bread in a clay oven. In the Copper Age house (the 3rd area), children get acquainted with leather, pottery, metal tools and weapons and simple weaving looms. The first Mesopotamian clay tablets with writing are discussed, the phonetic / ideographic symbols. The comparison with Italy gives an idea of time depth.
After the workshops which don’t take place in the (re)constructed houses but in a modern setting, the children go and visit archaeological sites, situated in the park.