ARCHÄOLOGIEMUSEUM IM FRÄNKISCHEN FREILANDMUSEUM , PRÄHISTORISCHE STAATSSAMMLUNG MÜNCHEN

Description

The Archaeology Museum in the Fränkisches Freilandmuseum Bad Windsheim functions as a branch of the Archäologischen Staatssammlung München and is located in the Baugruppe Mittelalter of the open-air museum. It presents archaeological research in a museum context and focuses on architectural evidence from past eras.

The museum is housed in a historic sheep barn from Virnsberg, whose exhibition space conveys the atmosphere of traditional building craftsmanship. The barn is part of the Baugruppe Mittelalter and combines original fabric with museum presentation.

The present Archaeology Museum developed from the Vorgeschichtsmuseum Bad Windsheim, which was housed in the Alte Lateinschule from 1983 to 1998. Because that institution offered no possibilities for expansion, the concept was redesigned in 2001 and the collection was relocated to the open-air museum. The exhibition, installed in the roughly 500-year-old barn from Virnsberg, underwent a thorough revision in the summer of 2014.

The permanent exhibition focuses on building practices from prehistory and early history to the early Middle Ages. Particularly notable is the faithful reconstruction of a multi-storey burial house of a noblewoman from Zeuzleben in Unterfranken. The Thuringian woman had been buried in the 6th century; her grave contained unusually extensive grave goods such as a wagon, jewellery, household objects and clothing. These finds illustrate social status, burial customs and the craftsmanship of the period.