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...
What kind of clothes did the Neandertal people wear (CH)?
We know much too little about that because clothes do not remain conserved in the soil for such a long time. We can presume however, the Neanderthal used this what they had to their disposal...
Were there already Muslims and Christian people (NL)?
There are Muslims since محمد بن عبد الله بن عبد المطلب بن هاشم بن عبد مناف القرشي / Muḥammad ibn Abd Allāh ibn Abd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāšim ibn Abd Manāf al-Qurašī / Mohammed (about 571 – June, 8th 632) founded the Islam in about 600 AD...
How did people hunt before bow and arrow were invented (NL)?
Bow and arrow were invented about 15,000 years ago, when the last ice age was ending. Before that, people used a stick to make their arm longer, thus enhancing the power with which the spear was thrown...
What language did people speak in the early Middle Ages (NL)?
The language spoken in the Netherlands in the early Middle ages we now call Old Dutch. It’s actually a collection of dialects which were spoken in the Low Lands between 600 and 1200...
Did a Dutch 14th century city stink (NL)?
That is difficult to answer because: what is stinking actually? It smelled different in a medieval town than nowadays. Almost all houses had a fire place where wood was burnt. Poor people would burn turf (smells more)...
Where do modern musicians get medieval music from (NL)?
In different monasteries and libraries, sheet music dating back to the Middle Ages is kept.
Biskupin is famous in Polish society and still has been brought in connection with Preslavonic tribes, why (PL)?
Prof. J. Kostrzewski created the theory that Biskupin as a settlement of Lusatian Culture had been joined with Preslavs, now this theory has minor significance and we treat Biskupinians just as Indoeuropeans.
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...
You have something hanging above the fire, what’s that (SE)?
It is a protection for the roof, to keep sparks from getting up in to it. Right now we have a piece of wool cloth, in our last house we had animal skin. As soon as we can we are building a frame of willow which we are going to coat with clay.