Unteruhldingen in Germany, It is near Lake Constance, in home to an open-air museum showing 20 reconstructed lake dwellings from the Stone and Bronze Ages (4000 - 858 BC). The museum, which opened in 1922, was one the first of its kind in Europe. Today it attracts about 300,000 visitors a year from all over the world. It gives an insight in to how people lived thousands of years ago. The dwellings consisted of wooden huts built on the piles in the water, mainly providing protection against marauders. The huts had beaten clay floors and some also housed sheep and cattle. Remains of the various pile-dwelling settlements are found in the many parts of the world. An open air museum is a distinct type of the museum exhibiting its collections out-of-doors. They are variously known as the Skansen, Living Farm Museums, living museums and the folk museums. A more recent but related idea is a realized in the Ecomuseum, which originated in France.