a five year culture project with 11 partners, building on the success of exarc. our objective is to...

A five year Culture project with 11 partners, building on the

success of EXARC. Our objective is to create a permanent

partnership of archaeological open-air museums throughout

Europe. The ultimate goal of OpenArch is to help museums and

their broader network to become more professional, and to

demonstrate the value of working on a European level for the

benefit of the visitor experience.

2011 - 2015

OpenArch Partners

CoordinatorLa Ciutadella Ibérica de Calafell (CAT)

The Iberian Citadel of Calafell is a centre of experimental archaeology, an archaeological open-air museum where visitors can see what life was like in the Iron Age 2,500 years ago. It is the first archaeological site in the Iberian Peninsula to have been reconstructed by using experimental archaeological techniques.

OpenArch Partners

University of Exeter, Department of Archaeology (EN)

Archaeology at the University of Exeter is a vibrant academic community offering excellent teaching and research. They are ranked 2nd in the United Kingdom for their world-leading and internationally recognised research and many staff publish on experimental archaeology. They offer high levels of student satisfaction and encourage students to use experimental methods.

OpenArch Partners

Amgueddfa Cymru,St Fagans National History Museum (WLS)

Located to the northwest of Cardiff, the museum was created in 1946 in the grounds of St Fagans Castle. It features dozens of reconstructed buildings, brought from across Wales, and three Iron Age roundhouses based on excavated examples. St Fagans is one of Europe's leading open-air museums and has been voted the UK’s favourite tourist attraction.

OpenArch Partners

EXARC (NL)

EXARC is the ICOM* Affiliated Organisation representing archaeological open-air museums and experimental archaeology. EXARC raises the standard of scientific research and public presentation among our membership through collaborative projects, conferences and publications. *ICOM is the International Council of Museums.

OpenArch Partners

Archeon (NL)

Founded in 1994, Archeon covers 10,000 years of human development in the Netherlands. From hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age and farmers in the Bronze and Iron Ages, through the Roman period and right up to everyday life in 1340 AD, “Archaeo-interpreters” show what life was like in “their time” in the 43 reconstructed buildings.

OpenArch Partners

Hunebedcentrum (NL)

Lying on the Hondsrug in Borger, in the North of the Netherlands, the Hunebedcentrum takes you back to prehistoric times and shows you the lives of the first farmers in Drenthe. They constructed impressive monumental tombs and the remains of 54 of them can still be seen, the largest one standing right next to the centre.

OpenArch Partners

Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf (DE)

The “Stone Age Park Dithmarschen” in Albersdorf (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) is being reconstructed as a Neolithic cultural landscape from ca. 3.000 BC. Lying close to megalithic tombs and grave mounds dating from the first farmers in Northern Germany, the site offers educational activities like flint knapping, archery and leatherwork.

OpenArch Partners

Fotevikens Museum (SE)

25 km south of Malmö, Sweden, you will find the Archaeological Open-Air Museum of Foteviken. Inside a city wall open toward the sea, the world’s only attempt to recreate an entire Viking Age town shows a number of streets with 23 houses and homesteads, reflecting life in a late Viking Age and early Middle Age town in 1134 AD.

OpenArch Partners

Kierikkikeskus/Kierikki Stone Age Centre (FI)

The archaeological exhibition at the Kierikki Stone Age Centre displays objects from the Stone Age. In addition, activity programs in the reconstructed Stone Age Village offer a unique opportunity to experience life as it was lived thousands of years ago. Other attractions include a restaurant, hotel and museum shop.

OpenArch Partners

Arheološki Institut (RS)

Viminacium is an ancient Roman site on the right bank of the Danube in eastern Serbia. In an area of about 450 ha are the remains of a military camp, a city and cemeteries. Remains of a Roman bath, a mausoleum and one of the gates of the military camp can be seen, as well as a replica of a Roman villa.

OpenArch Partners

Parco Archeologico e Museo all’aperto della Terramara di Montale (IT)

The terramara of Montale, near Modena in Northern Italy, is a typical Bronze Age settlement with pile dwellings surrounded by a ditch with water and imposing earthwork fortifications. Next to the site is an Open-Air Museum with life-size reconstructions of two houses furnished with replicas of the original finds dating back 3500 years.

OpenArch Partners

The main idea of Archaeological

Open-Air Museums is to present both

the tangible and intangible past to the

public. The tangible parts of

Archaeological Open-Air Museums are

the archaeological remains and the

reconstructions of these. The

intangible and most interesting part of

an Archaeological Open-Air Museum

is the story of the people that once

lived there. The work in OpenArch is

divided in Work Packages. All Work

Packages are the responsibility of the

entire partner-ship, but one or two

partner are coordinating them.

Work Packages

Project Management

The primary objective of this Work Package is to run the project professionally and smoothly through a committed and experienced project bureau, run by the Lead Partner. This will consist of a project manager, a financial manager, a first and a second advisor. The bureau runs the day to day coordination.

Coordinators: La Ciutadella Ibérica de Calafell (CAT)

Improvement of Museum Management

The objective of this Work Package is to enhance competence among museums directors on management issues with specific relevance to archaeological open-air museums, including health and safety issues relating to open-air constructions, working conditions for staff outdoors, environmental and ‘greening’ issues.

Coordinators: Amgueddfa Cymru – St Fagans National History Museum (WLS)

Fotevikens Museum (SE)

Work Packages

The Dialogue with the Visitors

This Work Package focuses on the presentation of archaeology to the public. The partners have great expertise to present and working with living history for sites and their history. We help children, young people and adults of all ages to discover their own local history with our own method. A significant asset of archaeological open-air museums is that they do not attract a limited target group.

Coordinators: Archeon (NL) Arheološki Institut (RS)

Work Packages

The Dialogue with Skills

This Work Package gives a strong focus on the people that do demonstrations of traditional skills like metalworking, textile working, pottery making, woodworking et cetera.

Coordinators: Parco Archeologico e Museo all’aperto della Terramara di Montale (IT)

Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf (DE)

Work Packages

The Dialogue with Science

This Work Package focuses on experimental archaeology and how larger-scale experiments, as co-operation between scientists from all participating countries, can contribute to make the visitor experience at archaeological open air museums even better.

Coordinators: University of Exeter, Department of Archaeology (EN)Kierikkikeskus/Kierikki Stone Age Centre (FI)

Work Packages

The Dialogue with Museum Organisations

The objective of this Work Package is to link the archaeological open-air museums more closely to the museum world at large. Joint workshops will be organised with the ICOM committee CECA (on didactics and communication / education in museums), and with other relevant organisations.

Coordinators: La Ciutadella Ibérica de Calafell (CAT)EXARC (NL)

Work Packages

Communication and Dissemination

The objective of this Work Package is to get more visibility and therefore acceptance of the co-organisers and archaeological open-air museums in general. We need to see how each museum can bring its own message better and define a common approach, ‘a brand’ for archaeological open-air museums in Europe.

Coordinators: EXARC (NL)Hunebedcentrum (NL)

Work Packages

Meetings are theoretically focused events, with

presentations / lectures and discussion groups. These are open and of interest to a broader audience. Workshops are practically focused ‘working together’ gatherings for staff of the Archaeological Open-Air Museum with the aim of exchanging insight into specific methods and improving each other’s skills.

Meetings & Workshops

January 2011: Kick off Meeting of OpenArch, Calafell (CAT)

From January 24th to 28th the OpenArch project fired the starting shot in the Mediterranean town of Calafell. The organisation prepared a very complete agenda with different activities and a detailed work plan with introductory speeches and several meetings which made possible that partners could meet each other in person and take the first decisions to start building up the planning of the project in this first stage called “Inception Phase”, which it was considered to be finished after the next meeting to be held in Borger (NL).

Number of Participants / Visitors / Audience: 30

October 2011: "Bringing archaeology to life", Borger (NL)

The Borger Meeting, 3rd - 7th October 2011 was a great success with almost 100 participants from about 10 countries. The Borger Meeting was to discuss new ways to reach the public with archaeology. The meeting combined participants from OpenArch, Zeitgeist and EXARC and was also visited by members of the Dutch network VAEE.

Number of Participants / Visitors / Audience: 100 Participants, 50 Visitors


April 2012: III OpenArch meeting in Modena (IT)

The meeting dealed with the implementation of the OpenArch project activities with a specific focus on the Dialogue with Skills, a topic coordinated by the Italian partner in cooperation with the German partner Archäologisch-Ökologisches Zentrum Albersdorf. Core of the program was the Workshop Smiths in Bronze Age Europe, planned with a pedagogical and hands on approach with the aim to provide a reference guide for skill experts, craftsmen as well as managers dealing with Bronze Casting presentations in Archaeological Open-Air Museums.



September 2012: "Museum interpretation and public engagement: challenges and opportunities", Höllviken (SE)

The over-arching theme was the challenges of interpreting and engaging public interest in open-air museums and archaeological / historic sites. For two days, the linked themes “Management & communication strategies at open-air/archaeological museums” ,“Working with volunteers” and “How can performance of various kinds contribute to and extend the work of such museums and sites?” have been discussed.




April 2013: The Dialogue with the Visitor, Alphen a/d Rijn (NL)



September 2013: Albersdorf (DE)




Spring 2014: Conference on the Dialogue with Science (Oulu FI)





September 2014: Beograd & Viminacium (RS)






March 2015: Cardiff (WLS)





March 2015: Cardiff (WLS)

November 2015: Calafell – Finale (CAT)


The University of Exeter, Department of Archaeology (EN) is organizing various workshops for OpenArch partners’ staff, where they can learn more about experimental archaeology, not just the academic backgrounds, but much more on how this can be applied in archaeological open-air museums. We plan two workshops every year with about three museums participating each time. Subjects are from house construction to publishing and didactics.


Staff Exchanges are thought to be a

tool to interchange best practices

between staff of different museums.

The target group of Steering

committees are the directors,

managers and responsible of the

museum partners of the OpenArch

project. The target group of staff

exchanges are the day to day workers

of the museum, the ones that are more

close to the general public and

schools. Mainly, by means of this

activity, we reach one of the EU

objectives: to enhance the cross-

border mobility of artists and workers

in the cultural sector.

Staff Exchanges (samples)

Bronze casting workshop at Parco Montale

Number of Participants: 30 of which 10 Staff Exchanges

Staff Exchanges (samples)

Hunebedcentrum (NL) visits megalithic burial excavation near Albersdorf (DE)

Number of Participants: 3

Experimental Actions - archaeological remains and

objects are tangible remains of past civilizations. They need to be interpreted to give meaning today, and interpretation is dependent on experiments. Experiments are needed to understand how objects

were made, how constructions can have looked like and not the least, how people in the past behaved and acted.

Experimental Actions (samples)

OpenArch has several means of bringing our message to those people interested. The EXARC Journal is published both in hard copy and online. Besides that, several websites reach thousands of people.

Other Products (samples)

Other Products (samples)

Community Manager

Our websites are being updated several times per week. The Community Manager is also present on several social media, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Here we notify people about new activities, and products, updates from our partners and much more. Search for ‘experimental archaeology’ or ‘archaeological open-air museums’!

Learn more about us at

a five year culture project with 11 partners, building on the success of exarc. our objective is to...

Documents

openarch partnersexarc

openarch partnersarcheon

ultimate goal of openarch

archaeological site

experimental methods

iron age roundhouses

recognised research

iron ages