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 can you tell how old an object is (CH)?
Every period has its very typical range of objects like ceramics, tools, jewellery et cetera. Grouped by way of making or decoration an object can be assigned very precisely to a period of time (typology)...
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...
Since you have a fire in the house and only a small hole in each end of the house, didn’t people suffer from smoke inhalation (SE)?
Well, from what we’ve seen we don’t need any more openings for the smoke to get out. The ones in each end creates a draft which makes the smoke rise up to the ceiling and escape easily without allowing any to be disturbing.
Did people make everything by themselves in prehistory (NL)?
Most settlements were probably mostly autarctic, taking care of their own food, clothing, pottery, tools et cetera. There are however clues for the exchange of goods and resources which were not present in the local environment...
Are there finds from furniture dating back to the Lake Dwelling Times and how did they look like (DE)?
Yes. We know rests from chairs, beds as well as racks, both from the Stone Age as the following Bronze Age. They were not at all worked as artistically as the furniture from the Mediterranean we know from the same era or from the Near East. They are more the results of sound craftsmanship...
Which types of weapons did people have in the Iron Age (SE)?
There were several types of weapons during this period. There are archaeological finds of bows and arrows from f.ex. Danish sacrificial bogs. The arrowheads were made of iron or bone. Bow and arrow could also be used for hunting...
What is a megalithic tomb (hunebed)(NL)?
A megalithic tomb (in the Netherlands called 'hunebed') is a 'room' made of large boulders in which the dead were buried. The Dutch megalithic tombs were built between 3.400 - 3.200 BC by the people of the funnel beaker (TRB) culture.
Iron in the Iron Age, did that exist (NL)?
It is not for nothing called "Iron Age". The art of making iron originates - like many developments - from the Near East. In the Southern Netherlands, for tools and weapons, often wood and stone were used, occasionally bronze...
How did medieval people burry their dead (NL)?
Medieval people wanted to be buried as close as possible near the relics of a saint or a church altar. Rich people were buried inside the church, in a monastery church or monastery hallway...
Were the people in the Iron Age in Poland religious (PL)?
It is very difficult to reconstruct the beliefs of people back then on the base of what we found. Besides that, we can only imagine if religion was all pervasive or not that important...