What happens when archaeology opens its doors and lets visitors get close to its work? In the summer of 2024, the archaeologists at Vesthimmerland Museum let visitors get close to their work.
In connection with developing a new residential area, archaeologists at Vesthimmerlands Museum in the autumn of 2023 and winter of 2024 found some of the oldest house tombs from 2500 BC, referred to as the “Corded Ware Culture.”
Floors from the houses were scraped off and placed in big bags for subsequent water, screenings to uncover what had been lost, and stepped into the floor.
Water sifting is done by washing the soil on sieves, so to speak, leaving stones and other finds in the sieve. Often, this process takes place inside the museum, but this time, the museum decided to let it take place in public and let visitors get involved.
The many big bags were transported to the Stone Age Centre Ertebølle, where the equipment for the water screening was also set up. Visitors to the museum—young and old alike—could then test their archaeological skills and participate in retrieving the soil, shoveling it onto the sieves, and rinsing it through.
Figure 1 Archaeologist Simon Kjær Nielsen, Vesthimmerlands Museum, helps the young “archaeologists” identify finds
Figure 2 Soil is washed through a sieve, leaving stones, charcoal and finds
It quickly proved to be a great success. The guests were very happy with the activity and wanted to participate in the wet game. Even though it was easy to get wet and dirty, the motivation was high—were you lucky enough to find something? The guests quickly learnt to identify flint flakes, potsherds, axes, and arrowheads.
Figure 3 Examples of finds from the screening: decorated potsherds on the left, scoops on the right
The activity was so popular that the archaeologists’ function was changed to education and training in identifying, for example, natural stone from flint flakes. The activity even documented that it helped to get through the many big bags faster.
Figure 4 Seats were in high demand.
A summer of watering daily from 10 am-3 pm yielded many positive results:
- There was much interest from both children and adults in the archaeologists’ work
- This interest helps visitors understand archaeology and history in general
- It was often the children initially motivated by the activity that had a knock-on effect on their parents.
- Direct involvement in the activity makes the museum’s work visible
- It’s very motivating for visitors to get up close to original finds, and you can’t underestimate the impact when the visitor makes the discovery – which was subsequently exhibited.
- It was also very motivating for the museum staff to see the visitors’ deep interest in the excavation, the activity, the profession and the museum.
- The close connection to guests makes sense.
Water screening showed that it made much sense, both for visitors and museum staff. Thus, there is a basis for further work with visitor-involving archaeology in several areas to increase accessibility to finds and the underlying knowledge. It was a simple activity that showed great potential in many areas.