Living History and the Public in Mitterkirchen, Upper Austria
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2015-12-01

Jutta Leskovar1, Helga Rösel-Mautendorfer2
1OBERÖSTERREICHISCHES LANDESMUSEUM, 2FREILICHTMUSEUM MITTERKIRCHEN

In 2011, a Living History project started in the open air museum of Mitterkirchen, Upper Austria. The museum is dedicated to the early Iron Age, having been built following 10 years of excavating a large early Hallstatt period cemetery in the 1990ies. The scenery, consisting of a group of reconstructed buildings of different purpose and a reconstructed tumulus, among other features as a small restaurant etc., is usually „inhabited“ by women who act as guides and teachers during workshops. In order to add another attraction for visitors, and for filming a documentary, a project called „Prunkwagen und Hirsebrei“ started in summer 2011. A group of 11 people (among them some archaeologists) moved into the museum village and tried to live a Hallstatt period live, as authentically as possible. As the project was considered a success by all participants, it has been repeated every summer since.
One of the most important parts of this project is the contact to visitors. People seem to be interested and glad not to have missed this rare opportunity of being able to talk to specialists and watching them try to live like people in 800 BC. But how much of what we try to transfer does reach visitors? Are they even interested in our striving for authenticity? What are visitors thinking about the past, before and after their visit? To answer those questions, two surveys have been carried out in Mitterkirchen. The results help understand visitors’ interests and needs.