In the Straßer Valley (Straßertal), known from its wines, 11 municipalities cooperate regarding their cultural management. This is called “Kulturpark Kamptal”. One of their initiatives, 2001, was to set up a small Iron Age archaeological open-air museum. It gives us an insight in the living conditions of the time of 200 – 400 after Christ.
The entrance building houses as well the local cafe, “Germanenstüberl". In an indoor presentation, authentic artefacts clarify how fragmented archaeological information really is. This combination between cafe and archaeological presentation clearly is a case of hitting two birds with one stone and the museum is widely supported among the local population. In the past few years, the presentations, both indoor and outdoor have been expanded with help of the local population. There are regular blacksmith demonstrations and iron melting activities. The scientific backgrounds came from VIAS, the “Vienna Institute of Archaeological Science” who have constructed several other archaeological open air presentations, commissioned by local authorities. The outside area is about 4,500 m2 and contains 5 buildings and a so called nature education path (‘Naturlehrpfad’) with a garden with typical plants of this period of time. VIAS was clearly happy to show many different types of wooden constructions were common in the Roman Era.
