Disney Jorvik...long post....

Barry Dressel wrote, in part:....., but a more germane compare and Hi all: I visited Jorvik in 1987 (it was probably quite new then) as part of a British Council course on Education in Museums. We did the ride on the train, saw the sights, smelt the smells, heard the noises, and then went to a talk by the man who was running the place (sorry, I can't remember his name but if you need it I still have my notes quite handy). He was quite emphatic about Jorvik NOT being a museum - spent a good deal of time on how 'the museum was dead' and this was the wave of the future, etc.

We discussed this (all us castigated 'real museum' folk) quite thoroughly afterward. The 'ride' itself is through a recreated Viking village of Jorvik and is created and peopled with models made of fibreglas or something. They didn't move or do anything. The ride was so fast that it was difficult to examine anything closely (we were told that the speed of the train can be adjusted to the numbers of visitors, and I believe it, it is the only 'museum-like' place I've been where people queued - some for more than a day - to get in).

The most significant part of the experience, for me, was that the train took us through a model of the archaeological dig which had taken place on the site and had led to the discovery of the Viking city, and the lab which we could see through a large window where people in white coats (archaeologists? I don't know - we weren't allowed to talk to, or ask about, them) were working on the finds from the site. I don't know if any of the real objects were used in creating the village, though I doubt it, probably for secutity reasons, in case anyone hopped off the train.

Our train journey ended at the shop, which seemed to be at least the size of the exhibit area. The York Archaeological Trust raises money for more archeological work in York with the Jorvik site, which I think is the only saving grace about the place. In their money-making capabilities they seem to have much in common with the Disney empire.

I guess my feeling was that I was not seeing anything 'real' - the scholarship may well have been impeccable, but I was just looking at models. I felt the way I felt at the Museum of Civilization in Hull when I read the labels in the early fishery section and discovered that all the *real* things are in Newfoundland, and I was looking - and, until I read the labels, looking with no little awe - at reproductions. In what is supposed to be Canada's national museum.

I may have an outdated view - my visit was more than 10 years ago. Things may have changed. But do see it for yourself before you decide to go down the 'dark ride' (sorry! joke!).

Mary Burke CMA PEI

Reading Mary Burkes response reminded me of my visit to Jorvik [also as part of a British Council trip] in 1996. As I recall thge lab and its people were also models. The ride was well done and the shop very large but for me the real learning took place round the corner at a very small 'museum' called The ARC, Archaeological Resource Centre. Set up inb an old church this was entirely self-funding, with none of the hoopla of Jorvik but very well done and lots of stuff to explore and research. I recall a very good interactive involving a computer and a a collection of objects [simulated dig finds]. The idea was to select one and enter details about it onto a database. You could explore how other people had described the object which caused a lot of discussions.

Peter Millward Manager, Education & Visitor Services Melbourne Museum PO Box 666E, Melbourne, VIC 3000 ph 61 3 9651 8162 fax 61 3 9651 6378 mobile 61 418 326 667

Concerning the discussion of the Jorvik Viking Center and it's 'Disney-like' presentation and the ARC (Archaeological Resource Centre) in York. Both are presented by the York Archaeological Trust. The ARC, an International award winning hands-on Archaeological museum, is an outgrowth of and response to visitors' surveys taken at the Jorvik which expressed a desire to have the time to look at and examine at a more in depth and leisurely pace what they had been exposed to in the Jorvik. Often times, groups start out at the Jorvik for an introduction (the appetizer) and then progress to the ARC for more detailed experiences (the meal). The one sets the questions which can then be explored at the other. Several summers ago, I interned at the ARC as a demonstrator. Interactive exhibits require someone to be with the artifacts to poise questions and prompt thinking processes as the visitors handle actual artifacts