living history

How to Make a Medieval Town Come Alive – the Use of Volunteers in Living History

Pia Bach and
Thit Birk Petersen (DK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/2
Archaeological Open-Air Museum
2018 EXARC in Kernave
***For over 25 years The Medieval Centre/Middelaldercentret in Nykøbing F. Denmark has used volunteers to inhabit the reconstructed medieval town of Sundkøbing. To combine the use of volunteers and living history is not easy or something that happens spontaneously. It is hard work and requires patience, strength and firmness, but also...

Conference Review: Hands on History ReConference, 2-4 November 2018

Helen Bowstead Stallybrass (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/2
Mixed Matters
Copenhagen 2 November, and a warm welcome received at the National Museum in Copenhagen. What better way to start a conference than with colouring flags and glitter? Well, it certainly was a great icebreaker for an international conference on re-enactment, for people from all over the globe speaking several different languages. Being asked to write a review, I wondered how best to approach this...

Interview: JAPKE – The Female Viking Power-house of Lejre

Christine Sonne-Jensen (DK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/2
Mixed Matters
Jutta Eberhards has been working with drama and living history for over 30 years. Born in the Friesland district in Germany, Jutta has over the years become a power-house in the management group of Sagnlandet Lejre – The Land of Legends (www.sagnlandet.dk). She has been tirelessly working to uphold the standards of the educational method that she and her colleagues developed...

Event Review: EXARC at the Times and Epochs Festival, Moscow, Russia

E. Giovanna Fregni (IT)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/2
Mixed Matters
In August 2018, members of EXARC participated in Moscow’s Times and Epochs Festival for the third year . The annual festival is held on park boulevards that surround the inner city, providing an ideal green space for reenactors to recreate various periods of Russia’s history. The main sites were located in Tverskaya Square, Nikitsky, Passion and Tver Boulevards, on Kamergersky Lane and Profsoyuznaya Street...

Current Trends in Annual Historical Re-Enactments Events in Catalonia. Uses of Cultural Heritage

Antonio Rojas Rabaneda (ES)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/1
Interpretation
The project “Re-enactments events in Catalonia” seeks to identify and analyse annually occurring events that make use of cultural heritage and history for the purposes of tourism, economic promotion and dissemination, and for other festive, recreational or educational ends. The activity programmes of all active events currently held in Catalonia were analysed and quantitative data provided in order to...

How to Run a Reenactment - Introduction to Reenactments and Reenactors, Part 1

Deb Fuller (US)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/1
Mixed Matters
Reenactments, meaning special events that use outside costumed interpreters, are a great way for sites to engage visitors and host memorable programs that build a following. Planning and executing a reenactment can be a daunting challenge for a site that has never hosted one. Like any special event, you have to make sure you have the staffing, resources, and logistics to handle the event...

Kernave Archaeological Site – the Place for Experimental and Living Archaeology

Andrius Janionis (LT)
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/3
Mixed Matters
2018 EXARC in Kernave
***Kernavė is one of the most picturesque places in Lithuania. Five hill-forts surround the wide valley of Pajauta. This place has always been visited by people not only for its sights but also for its aura of the distant past. Ever since people in Lithuania became more interested in history, Kernavė has been a symbol of...

History in Motion: Colonial Williamsburg

Nikola Krstović (RS)
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/2
Archaeological Open-Air Museum
Boundaries are always an interesting topic. In the framework of the current heritage buzz word decolonization, boundaries might also represent what is “colonised” in every cultural enterprise, or to be more specific, how and why some form of power obtruded its authority, and to what extent. Like almost all other museums, Colonial Williamsburg deals with the past. The past has its own boundaries that...

The Forgotten Movement – A (Re)construction of Prehistoric Dances

Ivana Turčin (HR)
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1
Interpretation

However, after studying archaeological artistic depictions, historical descriptions and contemporary ethnographic examples as the main research sources for the history of dance and dance movement and its development in the context of early human history, we created a conceptual reconstruction of prehistoric dances. It was presented in the form of an educational dance performance with the goal of presenting the archaeological heritage through a possible vision of dances and dance movements from a number of selected prehistoric periods: Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age.