Forsøgscenter Lejre har bytt namn till Sagnlandet

I Februari berättade Ludvig om en kurs han deltog i som handlade om konsten att berätta inom arkeologin... Det tänkte jag på när jag nu hörde att det väl kända Historisk-Arkæologisk Forsøgscenter i Lejre i Danmark har bytt namn och heter numera Sagnlandet Lejre. Historisk-Arkæologisk Forsknings- og formidlingscenter (Land of Legends. Center for Historical Archaeological research and communication).

Man kan se det som en byta av deras kärnberättelse. Här är min analys:

The official reason given is that the terms antiquity, prehistory, and history are widely associated with something that is dusty, boring and passive, whereas focus groups confirmed that the term “Land of Legends” is associated with a place that is far away, fantastic and full of activities. According to director Lars Holten, the archaeological open-air museum offers a world with precisely these characteristics – thanks to it being inhabited with people from different historical periods who tell visitors about life in the past. This is actually a fairly radical step: the overarching character of the historical and archaeological theme park is not merely adjusted from being rather academic and educational to being more interactive and experiential but the theme itself has been redefined. Whereas previously the Centre told stories about the past in an exciting way, now it is telling exciting stories in a way that evokes the past. The Lejre Experimental Centre investigating and presenting prehistoric lifeways has become a mainstream visitor attraction where appealing stories are being told about a distant, fantastic world associated with the past, a land of legends. That these stories are to a considerable extent based on academic research and popularise scholarly knowledge is seen as an additional strength of the entertaining stories being offered to visitors, endowing it with “a wonderful authenticity”, as the official statement puts it. At this point it is not intended that the overall purpose and range of activities carried out at Land of Legends are going to change as a consequence of its rebranding, although some of them might be reinterpreted by visitors.

Kommer detta att locka fler besökare till Lejre? Ska Länsmuseet byta namn till Museum of Legends och Högskolan erbjuda kurser i Legend Studies?