The name Stonehenge is full of mysteries. It is probably the most famous prehistoric monument, and also the monument about which the most myths and legends have been created. For the first time in the world, an exhibition is being shown about the fascinating cult complex Stonehenge and its surrounding landscape including the latest research findings on the much bigger and older stone circle at Durrington Walls – this is at MAMUZ Museum Mistelbach.
In the exhibition Stonehenge. A Hidden Landscape, original finds will be on display which have never before left the British Isles. Gigantic stone models in original size which can be touched, original stones like the ones used in the cult complex, and also digital animations on the surrounding landscape transport visitors to the mystical world of our ancestors more than 4,000 years ago. But a long time before Stonehenge there were even bigger monumental structures in Europe, in particular in the Weinviertel region: the circular enclosures. Discover a piece of the religious world of our ancestors – Stonehenge is close enough to touch.
True-to-scale reconstructions of the stone circle based on 3D laser scan data let visitors to MAMUZ experience the magnificence and dimension of this cult monument without having to travel to the cult site itself. Elaborate visualisations give a three-dimensional impression of the landscape surrounding Stonehenge so that visitors are able to imagine the stone circle and also picture all of the fascinating cult monuments in the extensive surrounding area. At the location west of London, in Wiltshire, the large numbers of visitors and the preservation of the site mean it is not possible to enter the stone circle directly or to touch the stones. In the exhibition at Museum Mistelbach, visitors are really “in the thick of it” thanks to visualisations and reproductions and they can also touch original bluestones and sarsen stones as used to build the complex.
The exhibition also links Stonehenge with the prehistory of the province of Lower Austria. Long before the first stones were put in place at Stonehenge, the first monumental structures appeared in Central Europe. The impressive discoveries of these circular enclosures, which are distributed throughout Lower Austria and especially in the Weinviertel region, are shown alongside the fascinating original exhibits of the so-called Bell Beaker culture, which demonstrates the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age in Lower Austria.
Working together with renowned cooperation partners, academics from Austria and abroad and also experts in exhibition design and multimedia presentation, MAMUZ is showing the first ever exhibition about Stonehenge. The exhibition is being realised in cooperation with the Niederösterreichische Landessammlungen, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, 7reasons, atelier cremer and the University of Birmingham.
Stonehenge: A Hidden Landscape opens on 20th March 2016 and will run until 27 Nov. 2016.
Source: MAMUZ Museum Mistelbach [March 03, 2016]