This short visit was made in May 1998 and tied in with the trip to Slovakia to reduce the relative cost of travel. The PARABOW partners from Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the staff from Dubener Heide for a two day period. The main purpose of the visit was to inspect the site on the outskirts on the village of Authausen which had been donated to the German partners for a reconstruction of a Saxon longhouse. The site was around 0.5 hectares of land which had formerly been occupied by a community farm and small factory unit. Despite its rather unprepossessing past, the land had been cleared, was level and looked across pleasant arable farmland.
|
The site for the proposed Saxon longhouse at Authausen in Germany is on the edge of the town - detailed discussion revolved around whether living archaeology should try to block out the present day - a partially reconstructed windmill is also on the site. |
There was some considerable discussion about how necessary it is for a historical reconstruction to have surroundings conducive to the period selected. In this case the 8th century AD; there are various viewpoints on this subject. At the Ribe VikingeCenter in Denmark, 20 year old imported sitka spruce trees from North West America are being removed because they could not have been present in the 9th and 10th centuries. The Saxon site at Snettisham in the United Kingdom's East Anglia is in an isolated forest clearing and every effort has been made to avoid any visual intrusion from the 20th century. At the other end of the scale, Bedes World Saxon site in Jarrow, also United Kingdom, is surrounded by oil storage tanks, 30 meter high pylons and a imported car storage depot! The Authausen site is not within an 8th century landscape but has the opportunity to become an integral and vibrant feature in this small, rural and perhaps rather parochial German village. Some commentators believe that not only is it wrong to block out modern life from a historical reconstruction but the visitor actually benefits from the opportunity to see the old and new side by side.
The Authausen site already has a partially reconstructed windmill on it and there is a possibility that the site will be used to accommodate a variety of different wooden buildings. If this was the case, the PARABOW group all agreed that some sort of common theme, other than wood, should be selected. It may be possible to choose an agricultural or milling theme.
Another interesting part of this visit was the opportunity to inspect the 'loam' walls of the 18th century farmhouses in the village of Authausen. The use of soil rather than a mix of cow dung, straw and mud, on a reed or wattle frame is a more Slavic, Germanic and Saxon methodology and is thought to reflect the more continental climate where high humidity and rainfall are not such a problem.