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.
Did they really have such beautiful colours in the past (DK)?
Yes. From about the middle of the Danish Iron Age they began to colour their clothes in all sorts of colours. In the Early Iron Age, one had carefully sorted out the wool and made use of the natural colours of the yarn to create dice and striped patterns...
How did Biskupin settlement seize to exist (PL)?
Because of the rising water table of Lake Biskupin the inhabitants abandoned the settlement.
What games did Roman children play (NL)?
A wide variety of Roman games are known. These games vary from the simple throwing of nuts in a pot (Orca), to Roman rugby (Harpastum) and even chariot races with two hoops on a stick.
Where did people sleep in the migration period in Sweden (SE)?
Well that is a hard question to answer, because no beds of any kind from the migration period in Sweden have survived until today. They may have slept in beds, on benches or maybe even in hammocks. What we can be sure of however is that they didn’t sleep on the floor.
Where did medieval people go to the toilet (NL)?
In the Middle Ages, every house needed to have a secrete (toilet). Ordinary folk usually had it in their back yard. Underneath, a hole was dug which regularly needed to be emptied. The contents was used by farmers as fertiliser...
Could the ornaments in megalithic graves be a rudimentary kind of writing (DE)?
The ornaments which in seldom cases are found in megalithic graves (especially in the Anglo-Irish and the Iberian regions) cannot be seen as an early form of writing. In general we find geometrical elements...
What was the most used weapon in the Middle Ages (DK)?
The sword. But else there were trebuchets, bombarders and weapons with gunpowder, by the end of the Middle Ages...
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...
Were there any cult houses and if so, where were the clay breasts found? Is there proof for male or female priests or shamans (DE)?
Probably there were cult houses in the Late Young Stone Age, from 4,300 BC. We for example know such buildings from Ludwigshafen and Sipplingen at the Lake Constance and from Marin / Les Piècettes at the Neuenburger Lake in Switzerland.
Are there in Czech Republic any archaeological finds from caves? And if there are, where are they? (CZ)
At present in Czechia we know of 200 archaeological site in caves, below overhanging rocks and in gorges, Most of the sites were discovered in the karst areas: mostly in the Bohemian Karst (Central Bohemia, south-west from Prague), Moravian Karst (Central Moravia) and Štramberk Karst (Northern Moravia)...