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.
Why and how does one use fire when make flint tools? When I tried myself, the stones splintered into small pieces (DE).
When making flint (in different languages called "fire stone") tools, fire is rarely used. The word fire in this case refers to the possibilities of using flint to make fire with...
Was the longhouse at Borg really 83 metres long (NO)?
Yes, the house was this long during its last phase of existence, but it had been rebuilt several times, so the length has varied.
How did people sacrifice to the gods during the Early Iron Age (SE)?
During the Early Iron Age (500 B.C.-400 A.D.), people sacrificed mainly by placing the offerings in the water of bogs or lakes. To sacrifice in wetlands is a tradition which goes back to the Neolithic...
How long does prehistory already exist (NL)?
We usually let prehistory start with the emergence of mankind. Of course, the planet is much older than that, but that part of the past is studied by palaeontologists...
Which materials did people use in the Middle Ages to construct a house (NL)?
Most people built their houses in the Middle Ages just like in prehistory: a wooden frame, walls of plaited branches covered with clay and a straw thatched roof. Only later in the Middle Ages, only the rich could afford using stone or bricks...
People back then were not that stupid after all … (CH)
No, why should they! The modern human (Homo sapiens sapiens) is around for about 37,000 years. Ever since, people have the same appearance and the same development of the brain as we do...
In the Iron Age, didn't they have any domestic animals like cattle, cats or dogs (NL)?
They had cattle, but much smaller then the domesticated kinds we know of today. Dogs are the oldest pets but cats were not there yet in these days in this area, not until the Romans came...
Were there many parties in the Middle Ages? (NL)?
The image we have of the Middle Ages is often about the king at his castle, knights and ladies, jokers et cetera. But the truth was much different...
How important was the individual in the Middle Ages (NL)?
A possible answer is to be found at Nisbet:"as one of the points of calibration of Nisbet's vision on history, the transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era stands, in which both should be less seen as easy discernible...
Was it really true, in the Iron Age, men hunted and women cooked the food above a camp fire (NL)?
Surely there was a set division of tasks between men and women, more traditional then nowadays. Probably, inside the house, the women were in charge, men outside. Contrasts were important; air - earth, inside - outside, north - south...