Marion GROßMANN
(Archäologischer Park Carnuntum, Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria)
Keywords: living history, teaching everyday roman life
Abstract:
The archaeological site of Carnuntum situated roughly 50 kilometres east of Vienna, is Austria’s largest archaeological complex and has been known for more than 130 years. Archaeological investigations in an area called “Spaziergarten” in Petronell-Carnuntum shed more light on houses of which the remaining ruins have been displayed since the late 1940s in an open air museum. In the past 10 years, several of these buildings were reconstructed: a citizen’s house (so-called „House of Lucius“), a splendid City mansion (so-called „Villa Urbana“) and public baths are structures that can actually be lived in. For all reconstructions, solely experimental archaeology was applied.
What opportunities for interpretation do reconstructed buildings provide? What does the existence of fully visitable Roman houses mean for Carnuntum’s cultural mediation? It is a unique case, not only for Austrian open-air museums, but for European museums as well. Elements of everyday Roman life are not only displayed in a traditional manner, but can be touched and felt offering a clear educational and interpretative visitor benefit. Of course, carefully chosen interpretative teaching and mediating methods need to correspond with and complement the reconstructions. The interpretation methods used are mostly narrative and give the visitor the feeling as if the inhabitants of the houses or the city had left merely a few minutes ago.