0602Staff exchange from Archeon (NL) to Stone Age park Dithmarschen (DEU)
Dates and program
Sun 27 juli
22:00 Arrival
Mo 28 juli
8:00 Waking up/ check up with Rüdiger
10:00 Opening park
10:00 -12:00 Tour around the Stoneage park by Werner/ introduced to all the Hamburg students/ meeting few of the staff members
11:30 – 14:30 Working at the mesolithic site as stoneage girls (see activities)
14:30 – 17:00 Walk around the park by ourselves/observe the students and the activities
17:00 - 19:00 to the Supermarket with a journalist (see multiple articles)
19:00 – 20:00 Pictures taken for an artist (painter)
20:00 – 00:00 Free time
Tue 29 juli
8:00 waking up/ check up with Rüdiger
10:00 Opening park
10:00 – 17:00 Working at the mesolithic site as stoneage girls (learned from Jurgen, see activities)
20:30- 21:30 Bow shooting lessons from Werner
21:30 Saying goodbye to some of the Hamburg students
Wo 30 juli
8:00 Preparing for trip to the chalk mine
9:00 – 9:45 Driving to Lägerdorf
9:45 – 14:30 Searching Flint and marcasite
14:30 – 15:15 Driving back to Albersdorf
15:15 – 16:15 Supermarket for gifts as a thank you
16:15 – 17:00 Pictures taken for an artist (painter) (the same as Monday)
19:30 – 20:30 Dinner with Werner in Albersdorf
20:45 – 21:45 Preparing the car for the next morning
Do 31 juli
6:00 Leaving Albersdorf
11:00 – 19:00 Visiting Borger/ (got a big tour around the park/megaliths from Nadine)
19:00 – 22:00 Driving home
Introduction
As part of their activities within the OpenArch project, the Stone Age park AÖZA in Albersdorf invited students from Hamburg University to take part in experiments and interact with the public. As coordinators of the WP4 – Dialogue with Skills, much of the work done during these days is focused on exploring historical skills. Two experienced Archaeo-interpreters from Archeon joined the Albersdorf staff and volunteers, as well as the students, during this event.
Goals
- Bring up the communication and socialization level
- Exchange ideas
- Learn how the park works with visitors
- Interact with, and watch the students
Exchanged staff
Lucia Ros – Coördinator of the Prehistoric area in Archeon and Tour guide at Archeon. Had multiple functions in the past as the assistant park planner/ job interviewer/ animal caretaker and assisting events.
Has been sent to multiple Exarc congresses to learn and transfer the information to others. Went on a learning experience in Lejre (denmark) (20-27 juli 2014) Together with Liza van Rijn to learn more about the stoneage and socialize with people all over the world.
Also has 11 years of experience in the theater world, and teached drama to children for 5 years.
Liza van Rijn - Tour guide at Archeon. Has been sent to one Exarc congress (alberdorf, september 2013) to learn and transfer the information to others. Went on a learning experience in Lejre (denmark) (20-27 juli 2014) Together with Lucia Ros to learn more about the stoneage and socialize with people all over the world.
Activity
Social Activities
Because there were students around, we couldn’t actually see what the normal activities were.
We mostly saw the activities which Werner produced.
These were: - Bow and arrow shooting
- Painting on a slate piece that they could take home
- Making fire with the fire bow
- Drilling holes in bone and antler with flint or drills
Of course they also provide tours around the park.
Independent activities
A really great thing we saw, is that the park provides activities for visitors to do by themselves. Very handy when there’s not always someone around.
- Painting with ochre; people could paint on a pallet of loam (and started on the wall too)
- Working with flax; the whole process was shown and people could try to spin threads. They could also learn to twist and make rope.
- Drilling a hole; you can try to drill a hole in wood with flint and a stick.
They also built an indoor treehouse for kids to play in.
Students Activities
The students had multiple tasks at different stone age houses. The activities they showed were:
- Working with bark
- Making a skin boat
- Painting linen
- Making moulds for Bronze casting
- Making and baking pottery
- Smoking skins
- Making flutes out of branches and goose pens
- Making beer
The students prepared and cooked lunch every day.
Our Activities
We did not have one big thing as an activity; instead we did multiple small things. The focus was mainly on how we were working on flint/antler/arrows/shoes and so on. I also tried out the 2 drills that Werner had made, and the public was very amused about that.
The people could see us working with these materials and we showed them how and what we did. The people could also participate in our actions if they’d like, but most of the people rather watched us work than they would like to participate.
The public we mostly saw, were elderly people. Later on the day also children appeared, and they participated in painting and shooting bow and arrow.
Activities we learned more about
There are a few of our german friends who were there to teach us things, and we also learned more from a girl named Teresa. She is an American but lives in England. She is a PHD student at Exeter.
Jürgen (now a volunteer) Teached us how to make an arrowpoints. Also a few more basics for knapping flint
Werner (works at the park) gave us some lessons/pointers in Bow shooting and how to make fire. We also got new ideas about painting people, painting on leather/decorating clothing and drilling holes in bone/antler material.
Teresa (From exeter) learned us more about smoking skins and the different ways of preparing skins and their outcoming colours (brain/bark). She also showed us a bit of flint knapping. Bruce Bradley was her teacher at Exeter.
Report
We slept 4 nights in the biggest Mesolithic hut that Werner built. The view every morning was stunning…
28-07--2014 Monday
We woke up early and watched a beautiful view over the little lake. Werner got us breakfast, and Rüdiger came by to talk us through about the trip and the upcoming day.
After we changed ourselves into Mesolithic girls, Werner took us on a tour through the park. We met most of the students and got to see what they were up to. They had several projects they worked on (activities shown below). Their biggest project was the sweat hut that was built next to the biggest Mesolithic hut. It took them a few days to finish it, but has not been used by any of us during our stay.
After returning to our spot, we saw some of our friends we met during our stay last year: Jürgen, Klaus, and Rainer. Jürgen took us with him to his ‘’flint knapping place’’ (which is one of the houses with a fence around) and showed us some flint.
When we got back to the Mesolithic, we started to work on our own projects; making shoes, knapping flint and drill a hole in a horn. There were no visitors around unfortunately. Teresa, who was smoking a skin, was running around and taught us a thing or two about preparing skin and smoking them out.
After a while, we started our own tour around the park and made some pictures for research. We talked to some of the students and took a good look at all the information plates.
When we got back again, there was a journalist who wanted our attention. He made some pictures of us at our camp. The park was already closed and we were planning to go to the supermarket. The journalist liked that idea and really wanted to join us. We got in his car and went into the supermarket. The guy shot some photos and afterwards we went back to the park.
There, an artist waited for us. The guy is a great painter who recently started to combine old (animal) wall paintings with the now existing animals. He now wanted to make a painting with people from the past to new.
After this, we had some free time and sat around the fire.
the artists site: http://blogg.schmidt-arkebek.de/
copyright: Rainer Schmidt
29-07-2014 Tuesday
After waking up early and checking with Rüdiger about the day, we set up like on Monday. At 10:00 the park opened and we started on our projects as the day before. After an hour, Lucia went to the other stone age buildings and was held up by Jürgen, who was doing some flint projects. I went back to get Liza and we spent about one hour at a Neolithic house, learning how to make flint arrows and again some pointers about flint knapping. Unfortunately, there were no visitors around us that hour.
After we got back to the Mesolithic site, we talked to visitors about the prehistoric life. They were very interested, also about our background. So we had some good conversations. It is very interesting to see how the German public react in the stone age park. They are not afraid to ask anything, and grab things (even without asking; not always in favor of the prehistoric worker).
After opening hours we met up with some of the co workers from the park. There was also a new student with us, who is going to work in Albersdorf.
For dinner, Werner made us his famous Red Deer Stew. According to Liza, it was delicious!
After dinner, Werner gave us some bow shooting lessons. He has a special place behind the big hut to shoot, also for visitors. There is a fake bear placed, so people actually have something to hit.
When twilight arrived, we got back to our fire.
The students were very busy this day to finish the sweat hut, but did not use it unfortunately!
They had a goodbye party at the Neolithic homes in the evening, but we chose to stay at the Mesolithic site. We did say goodbye to Teresa and a few of the students we have met.
After a chatty evening around the fire, we finally went to bed.
30-07-2014 Wednesday
Jürgen arranged an appointment with the chalk mine we went to last year. It’s the place where the stone age park gets their flint and of course, we really needed some flint for Archeon.
So, it was an early morning and after meeting up with everybody, we drove to Lägerdorf.
When we arrived, we got some boots, a helmet, a bucket and an axe. For a few hours we were searching for flint and other nice things.
We got some big ones, and also found some marcasite. Liza met a man who was searching for fossils and got some nice ones to take home.
Half through the day we went back to Albersdorf. Liza and I went to the supermarket to prepare for the long drive home for the next day, and also bought some presents to express our gratitude for the stay.
When we got back to the park, we met a lady at the register who asked the register man about ‘’the two Dutch girls’’. She had read the paper we were in, and came specially for us. Unfortunately we not there for her.
When we got back at our huts, we met Werner again and the artist that took pictures of us. He came back because he was really excited about the pictures and wanted to take more of them. So we changed in our clothes again and he took some pictures.
In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant with Werner to talk everything through and afterwards we prepared our car to drive home the next morning.
31-07-2014 Thursday
We left early in the morning and went to Borger; the Netherlands. There we met Nadine and she gave us a grand tour around the ‘’Hunebedcentre’’ and showed us some megaliths.
We got home in the evening.
General observations and Evaluation during stay
Positive observations
- Great thinking of how to entertain the people when there is not a person around to talk to;
- Werner has multiple activities and gladly participates with the audience. Even after opening hours he still entertained them (painting on slate, bow and arrow shooting);
- Beautiful Mesolithic homes built by Werner Pfeiffer
- They are planning to built out more: there are multiple ideas to make the Mesolithic site a better place. Werner is the one who has some freedom to work on this;
- They have space to spread out;
- Lots of information placed around and inside the houses;
- The students gave a lively atmosphere around the park.
Negative observations
- they still use modern techniques to built and attach houses and modern materials for some of the activities
- Some of the ‘’complete’’ outfits are not authentic: using normal glasses, pants, shoes, bracelets.
- Most of the historical buildings are not decorated from the inside. There are information plates instead.
About the students
- A few students were working in front of the Mesolithic homes. Unfortunately they were dressed in linen clothing and they had some modern materials with them. I could tell that Werner was not really happy about this, and we were not really amused as well.
- The students were working hard on projects, though their interaction with the public was poor. Only a few of them were really open to people, but most of them just worked hard on their projects.