House of Questions
Delphi House of Questions was an EU Culture 2000 project by three EXARC members. Under this umbrella, other EXARC members as well collected and answered the most frequently asked questions by visitors to archaeological open-air museums. The largest part of this collection of questions you can find here – as many of them still carry importance. In most cases we offer the questions both in the original language and in English. With several questions you will find illustrations by Savannah Parent.
How many people lived in the Netherlands in prehistory (NL)?
Estimations of population numbers in the Netherlands in prehistory are based in information from ethnography, burial places, traces from settlements and many assumptions...
How many people lived in a Neolithic house in Northwest Schleswig (DE)?
This is not easy to say. We think that it could have been about ten persons in one long-house – all ages, all sexes, all social groups. We only can make comparisons to houses from younger times to get some idea...
How does one know, how to exhibit a skeleton (CH)?
The many - often very tiny - bones of a displayed skeleton can be very confusing. But nowadays people know a lot of the human skeleton and people know all the bones. With help of specially trained people, the anthropologists, skeletons are assembled correctly.
Did Denmark take part in the Crusades (DK)?
No, not in the major crusades to the Holy Land; Danes may have been there, but only in very limited numbers. Local crusades against infidels along the coasts of the Baltic Sea were organised by Danish kings, however...
When people at Lejre Land of Legends enter the Iron Age houses through the small doors they almost always ask: "were people really so small" (DK)?
No, they had to bent to to get though the doors, just like us. Averagely, they were only 5 cms shorter than us today. The doors are small of two reasons:...
How come it is so dark in prehistoric houses (NL)?
The prehistoric houses as reconstructed in Archeon have small or no windows. Most light enters through the door and the smoke holes under the roof. Besides this, the open fire gives some light. Honestly, we do not know...
How much time did it take in the early Middle Ages to build a house (NL)?
Nowadays, time is money. The longer it takes before it is ready, the more expensive the house is. Back then, building a new house meant you couldn't spend the same time on something else. Most medieval people were self-sufficient:...
How many people lived in a lake fortress (LV)?
Every dwelling house with its auxiliary structures was an independent economic unit. Each house would have been the home of one nuclear family, consisting of parents, children and grandparents...
Why are the “Terramare” called that way (IT)?
The term Terramare means prehistoric settlements in the eastern Po plain, above all in the Emilia and the Veneto, which originated here during the Middle and the Late Bronze Age (1600-1250 BC)...
How would a 12 year old entertain oneself in the Middle Ages (NL)?
Well, in those days, as soon as it would even be possible, children had to give a hand at home, for example with raising the even younger children. Many of those things would nowadays be called 'child labour', but that was how it was...