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10.000 years across – What do borders mean?

– Shared cultural heritage – basic narratives, shared stories

A number of Danish and German cultural heritage actors have put selected basic narratives into play in the meeting with the region's citizens, both digitally and analogue. Therefore, with support from the KursKultur 2.0 Network and Culture Pool, five 2021-2022 minute bilingual films have been produced during 3 and 4 as dialogue tools to supplement the museums' communication portfolio.

This project is financed by funds from the European Regional Development Fund.

What do boundaries mean?

Baltic Sea. The sea that borders the lush coasts of northern Europe and was populated by hunters and gatherers in the Stone Age. But the sea was not a barrier, not a border. It was a transport and communication route. For a long time the sea level was much lower than today, so it was a different landscape. Agriculture was – like the use of fire – one of the most important changes in human history. A technology that crossed the ocean.

Boundaries between life and death

Everywhere in Denmark, northern Germany, Poland – yes, even as far west as Ireland and south as France, you see monumental stone tombs, the megaliths. It was the most conspicuous feature of the Funnel Beaker culture, the gate to the dead.

The cultural change 6000 years ago brought about a change in daily life. This meant new techniques for obtaining food and running a household. But it also created another attachment to the place. An attachment that made the dead part of the visible world of life.

Limits arise

1.000 years ago, the borders around the Baltic Sea that we know today were in their infancy. The coastal landscape set the stage for international trade while the powers fought over the Baltic Sea. Traffic by water was more important than traffic by land. A traveler could cover with goods, animals and valuables in a single day at sea what was equivalent to many days' journey over land. The sea was the highway of the past.

Boundaries that define us

Groups with power emerged across the Baltic Sea. Kings and princes, bishops and bailiffs entered into a complex network of relationships. Where there had previously been free movement, over time boundaries began to emerge. Borders that defined where one's power and right began and where the other's ended.

Borders?

The manor houses across the Baltic Sea. An important driving force for cultural and material development in the region. A development which gradually became more and more globalised.

In the globalized world, sugar played one of the main roles. And in the Baltic Sea region, the role of sugar only became more and more important as the centuries passed.

Knud Lavard

St. Bendts and Knud Lavard. The murder of Canute in Haraldsted Forest and Valdemar the Great's campaign to canonize his father. Knud Lavard with saint cult in Ringsted church. Knud Lavard had a triple role as Danish border earl, Saxon vassal and Slavic (Vendian) knee over Vagrien – incl. Oldenburg, where the earliest Slavic church from the 3s has been excavated.

Dk/De

Volunteers at museums

Museums generally rely on volunteers to carry out a number of tasks and events (eg reenactment events) as well as various services and to enhance public awareness. There are a large number of volunteers who passionately support museums without being paid. IN Nordmus project met Danish volunteers from Museum Vestsjælland and German volunteers from Oldenburger Wallmuseum.