La reconstrucción y recreación históricas como recurso didácticovida cotidiana doméstica rural en el noreste peninsular (siglos V-XI)

Resumen

This PhD dissertation presents the potential of historical reenactment as a learning resource. The research framework developed in this work focuses on the uses of reenactment in the context of cultural heritage outreach and knowledge transfer both in the contexts of Public History and formal education. The framework uses experimental archaeology and artifact-based teaching to promote understanding of daily activities and lifestyle of Early Middle Ages domestic spaces (5th to 11th centuries) in northern Iberian Peninsula. Results suggest that the learning framework presented here is able to communicate the past to a diverse audience uniting both entertainment and emotion. The thesis achieves these goals by proposing a diversity of strategies. First, the creation of an open-air visitor centre built upon the architectural reconstruction of two living habitats based on archaeological evidence from two chronological periods: V-VI AD and IX-XI AD. These structures include areas for food production and storage(e.g. crops, grain silo) combined with production elements (forge, oven). This project allowed us to better understand the building techniques used in rural areas for the period under study while generating habitats that may be ultimately used as learning resources. Second, the design and making of a range of historical outfits based on archaeological evidence and crafted following traditional techniques. These outfits were further used to develop a historical reenactment event to show the society of XIth century under the title "1020 Normands at the service of Ermessenda". Finally, the thesis developed and assessed different learning paradigms focused on communicating historical content based on the two resources (e.g. buildings and outfits). Results suggest that reenactment-driven learning strategies are useful and viable both in formal and non-formal learning settings.