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 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...
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...
What kind of jewellery did people wear in the Middle Ages (NL)?
Well, that depended on who you were. There were large differences in classes, between farmers, civilians, clergymen and the nobility.
Often jewellery was about your profession (if you were a man)...
Why are the objects found below the earth surface (CH)?
When in the past a settlement was abandoned by the inhabitants, the left much garbage behind like pottery, bones or tools and the remains of their wooden houses...
Did children have to work as well (CH)?
People in prehistory did not get very old, meaning one had to grow up much earlier. There was less time to remain a child than nowadays. Besides this, life was very hard...
Are baking plates, typical for the middle and late Neolithic cultures of western Europe also known from the younger Neolithic (FR)?
Baking plates are known from the Cerny- und Chassey-cultures, the Bourgogne middle-Neolithic and the Michelsberg-culture, ca. 4500-3500 BC). Their use seem to stop abruptly around 3500 BC caused by another way of baking bread. Maybe from this time onward, people used to bake directly on hot ashes, hot stones, pots or the inner walls of furnaces...
How did people make fire in the Iron Age (NL)?
Roughly seen, there are two methods of fire making. The oldest way is the fire drilling: one mounts a wooden peg on a board of wood and rotates this peg quite fast. This way, the temperature rises where the peg touches the board...
What was the state of hygiene and health care in a lake fortress (LV)?
The lake fortress had a privy and a bathhouse or sauna, located on the perimeter of the complex. Hair was combed with bone and antler combs, and with combs made of pig bristles. Clothes were washed by beating...
How much does a medieval armour weigh (NL)?
A medieval suit of armour weighs between 25 and 40 kilograms.
How did the people of the lake fortress dress (LV)?
Excavated material permits reconstruction of the dress of the people living on the island. Women wore long linen shirts with half-length or full length sleeves. Simple wraparound skirts were made from a rectangular piece of woollen fabric...