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The everyday life of the Iberians: practising skills with the international summer workcamp

As usual in summertime, La Ciutadella Ibèrica of Calafell hosted an international summer work camp where during 10 days, 24 young people from 15 different countries worldwide (Japan, Germany, Portugal, Mexico, Taiwan, Belgium, Greece, Italy,...) made voluntary work with the aim to have a cohabitation experience combining leisure and educational activities together with developing a project for community service.
This workcamp was organised by the General Secretary of the Youth Department of the Catalan Government and managed by the Fundació Pere Tarrés. La Ciutadella hosts the camp and monitors the project development. This year's goal was to teach skills related to the Ancient Mediterranean context (especially on Iberian civilisation but linked to other contemporary cultures in Europe). We planned a wide range of activities for the mornings they had to work. We thought this was a great opportunitty to also show what we had learnt in other OpenArch partners' workshops so the activities were a repetition of a series of some handicrafts that one way or the other have been happening in OpenArch during these five years but adapted by our staff for us an for our visitors.
One of the goals was that the results of this workcamp could be part of the museum objects as an added value product that the visitors could also see during their visit (products made by the international workcamp participants and inspired by OpenArch knowledge).
They did the following activities: cordage and basketry with esparto grass and hemp, bronze casting, minting, ceramic production, repairing of walls and furnaces, making mud bricks (adobes) for construction, wood working (making of an Iberian warrior shield), they learnt wine making process and did grape trampling. We counted with two experts who shared knowledge with participants and with staff: Lola, an 87 years old "remendadora"* who showed techniques for making fishing nets in the traditional style when Calafell was a fishermen village and also Héctor, a reenactor specialist on Balearic slingers who made a workshop about the history of this ancient weapon and we could show our skills making one with strings and target practice.
This workcamp also had the participation of two delegates from Viminacium that visited Calafell for a staff exchange.
* the "remendadores" were women that repaired the fishing nets in the beaches. In a village like Calafell with an old fishing tradition, this important task of the everyday life does not exist nowadays
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