The educational Parc Arqueològic de Sant Llorenç de Montgai in Catalonia is an educational and leisure installation designed by the CEPAP (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) to bring schoolchildren and families closer to prehistoric ways of life and to the research methods that archaeology uses to broaden its knowledge, and to the preservation of cultural heritage in archaeological sites and the landscape surrounding them.
The installation consists of replicas of prehistoric encampments and areas simulating various features of archaeological sites in order to make visitors familiar with archaeological research techniques and the technologies and activities of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods.
The educational Park is directly related to the research projects and archaeological fieldwork that are carried on by CEPAP in the Noguera region (prehistoric sites of La Roca dels Bous, Cova Gran, Forat de Conqueta) and to the educational programme of the Noguera Field School (Camp d’Aprenentatge de la Noguera), that opened its doors in the 2006-07 academic year. It is an educational service of the Autonomous Regional Government of Catalonia's Department of Education.
This kind of field schools (camps d’aprenentatge), of which there are currently 16 in Catalonia, are designed to be a service which the educational administration uses to organise outdoors teaching activities. It provides accommodation to primary and secondary educational centres, in order to give children an opportunity to put their learning experiences about their natural or cultural environment into practice over periods of one or more days. The Noguera field school was designed in close co-operation with the CEPAP, both in terms of the educational projects it carries out and in terms of its research lines, especially those related to the archaeological heritage of the Noguera region.
Experiments are carried on by the researchers of the CEPAP in relation to their archaeological projects (different aspects related to prehistoric technologic – mainly Paleolithic and Neolithic) or to specific events such as the European Science Weeks. Main goals are nowadays education and scientific dissemination.
