Daily life events
The uniform size of the houses and their similar furnishings suggest that the villagers of Biskupin was not significantly differentiated socially and economically. The people were organized as a patriarchal clan community, important settled by an assembly of all adult members. The builders of Biskupin were impressively well-organized. Raising the settlement required great effort. Several thousand cubic meters of wood were used and over 1000 m2 of earth, clay and sand had to be transported to the island just to fill the boxes forming the ramparts. Recent dendrochronology studies confirmed that the older settlement had been built in just a few years. Presenting the daily life and crafts of the inhabitants of Biskupin is a key of the scenario. Typically, first, the original find will be presented as a 3-D model (the one seen during his visit by our merchant/user of the animation), then transformed into a 3-D model reconstruction and associated with a short movie of experimental archaeology presenting the technology of its production and/or presumable use (some objects may have been reused and recycled several times). The following subjects are planned:
1. Building a house (surviving remains of prehistoric buildings a 2-D models made basing on the original documentation, 3-D models reconstructions, including different construction technologies used for the walls and the roof, aerial photos and a movie presenting experimental archaeology of timber-work technologies, successive stage of construction, from foundations up to the roof))
2. Making a dugout (3-D model of the original find, 2 movies presenting different phases of production and the method of paddling)
3. Carpentry and wood-carving (3-D model of surviving prehistoric furniture, a movie presenting different technologies including a primitive foot-powered lathe)
4. Making cart wheels (3-D model of the original fragment of a wooden ash disc wheel and its reconstructions, a movie presenting technologies of production and practical use)
5. Working bone and antler (3-D model of 3 original finds from horn and bone: awl, arrow-head and hook, followed by movies presenting different methods of production and practical use in sewing, hunting and angling under ice or from a dugout). Over half of the tools found in Biskupin were made from horn and bones of wild animals. Before being worked the horn and bone were softened in natural acids to make them pliable. They were probably soaked for several weeks in sour milk or placed in pits with sorrel leaves and then used to make various kinds of hoes, hammers, wedges, scrapers and smoothing tools, awls, needles, spear and arrow-heads.
6. Bronze-casting (3-D models of the original finds: axe and bracelet and disposable casting moulds of clay, 2 movies presenting experimental archaeology of two technologies of bronze casting – in stone moulds and the lost wax method, a 3-D reconstruction of a bronze axe and a movie presenting its practical use in felling a tree)
7. Making jewellery (3-D animations of different ornaments made of bronze wire and a movie presenting the method of their production)
8. Iron metallurgy using bog ores (movies presenting experiments and 2-D animation showing the function of a primitive iron smelting furnace, although in our period the technology was still unknown in Biskupin and iron was imported)
9. Iron-working (On the base of original finds: a needle, razor or sickle presented in 3-D models, movies of experiments showing different technologies of iron-working and practical use of iron objects i.e. harvesting with a sickle)
10. Ploughing (3-D animation of preserved parts of a wooden ard, 3-D reconstruction, movie presenting ploughing with a pair of oxen)
11. Other agricultural tasks (original finds of corn: wheat, barley, millet, flax; a movie of documenting experimental farming of fields and harvesting with sickles)
12. Grinding corn (3-D models of prehistoric querns, a movie presenting method of grinding corn using querns)
13. Making unleavened bread (movie presenting preparation and baking of unleavened bread)
14. Making butter in a churn (3-D models presenting surviving fragments of prehistoric butter churns, 3-D models of ethnographic churns, movie showing butter-making)
15. Herb lore (movies presenting experimental herb-fields, different herbs known and used, and their purpose)
16. Animal husbandry (3-D models of excavated bones of domesticated animals, movie presenting a herd of wild pigs, Przewalski horses, cattle etc.)
17. Hunting and fishing (3-D models of preserved bones of wild animals, movies presenting hunting and angling)
18. Salt-making (movie presenting early methods of making salt)
19. Food preparation (movies presenting some of the cooking methods documented on site e.g., smoking fish: ‘recipes from the Biskupin kitchen’)
20. Pottery making (3-D models of three different types of pottery – ornamented cinerary urn with white inlay, ordinary tableware and a clay model of a bird, movies presenting how they were made)
21. Firing pottery in open hearths and kilns (movies presenting different technologies of firing – in an open hearth and in different ovens)
22. Spinning (3-D models of two different original spindle whorls, a movie presenting methods of spinning)
23. Weaving (3-D model of original loom weights, movie presenting different methods of weaving from the most basic to more sophisticated on a vertical loom)
24. Dressing and tanning animal skins (3-D models of original tools used in working animal skins, movie presenting these methods)
25. Dyeing (presenting of different natural dyes used and movie presenting methods, short movie from Fez in Morocco presenting the world famous natural tanneries)
26. Making birch tar (3-D models of preserved pottery vessels used in making birch tar, movie presenting distillation of pitch tar and its different uses – as a medicine, glue, for greasing cart wheels etc.)
27. Rope-making (movie presenting different methods)
28. Amber-working (3-D models presenting amber beads from the North and Mediterranean Sea, movie presenting their production)
29. Musical instruments (movie presenting use of some early musical instruments like Pan pipes, etc.)
30. Transport (3-D reconstructions of elements of horse equipment cf. horn bit, movies presenting horse-riding, chariot or dugout)
31. Ice-skating on animal bone skates (3-D model of original bone skates, movie presenting ice-skating using animal bone skates on Lake Biskupin) - Religious events Probably under the influence of western Hallstatt (Alpine region) or Mediterranean cultures the first pantheon of pagan gods appeared, replacing the original worship of the forces of nature. However, no traces of shrines, altars or any other religious places were identified in the Biskupin settlement or even the entire territory of Lusatian Culture. Perhaps clay models of birds, rams or some ornaments seen on pottery including figural scenes (hunting or chariots – Hallstatt influences) had their religious background. They should be reconstructed as 3-D models. The custom of cremation became common, the ashes buried in flat graves rather than under a mound in cemeteries which frequently numbered over a thousand graves. Such gravefields have been found and excavated around Lake Biskupin in relative close proximity to settlements. Typical cinerary urns and grave goods like pottery or bone, antler, bronze and glass ornaments will be photographed and presented in 3-D models. The cremation rite will be reconstructed in the from of an experiment and documented using a camera. Most probably the dead bodies were transported to the burial ground in dugouts.
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