What is the Time Portal?
Aelius and the Time Portal is an interactive history lesson for children of group 5 and 6 of primary school and close to the history lessons that are given at school. The children travel during this lesson through what is called a time portal to the Roman era in their own district, Kanaleneiland in Utrecht. Based on the story of a Roman slave, the students learn in an interactive way the Limes. This is the old Roman border, inter alia by the Netherlands and walked through Kanaleneiland making a connection between the Netherlands, Turkey and Morocco. Because many residents of Kanaleneiland originally come from Morocco, it is very special for these children to see that this connection already existed at these early times.

Original and accessible
The jury chose this project because the target and the original approach: "the LIMES project is not only the challenge of double integration in both the Netherlands and the European Union, but also focuses on youth in the society that not every day come into contact with Europe and its importance. A project that in an original and accessible way enhances the EU involvement with full enthusiasm. The deserved winner, "says Esther de Lange, Christian Democrat MEP and member of the Karel de Grote-prize.

PORTICO
The development of Aelius and the Time Portal was part of the international cooperation PORTICO. Student teams from the various participating cities (Utrecht, Ghent, Chester and Cologne) were ordered to work out innovative business cases for promotion and exploitation of archaeological heritage in their city. PORTICO is supported with a financial contribution from the European subsidy program for Interreg IVB North West Europe.

Karel de Grote-prize
The Karel de Grote-prize has a national jury who chooses from any country of the European Union a winner. Here, a European jury will then choose the three best projects. The representatives of the 27 national winning projects will be invited for an overnight trip to Aachen, where the ceremony will take place by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Karel de Grote-prize of Aachen.

Source: European Parliament The Hague
More information:
http://limes.hku.nl

Archaeological research over the past century delivers much insight into the different time layers on each other and under the Domplein. With the aid of 3D techniques it is possible to convert this knowledge into images. Different time layers of the Domplein were already in 3D. Until recently we had a very limited view from the early medieval phase.

The latest 3D model of artist Jan de Rode changes this. Together with Jos Stöver (Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage) and Raphael Rijntjes (Utrecht University) he has made a beautiful winter reconstruction of this period. It shows the churches of missionary Willibrord, but also that there probably were some farms within the remnants of the once glorious castellum.

On Sunday October 9th Ghent celebrated the first birthday of its City Museum, STAM. A good reason to throw a party! Many showed up around noon for the day ‘s kick-off: a cooking competition “Who makes the best Ghent beef stew?” Throughout the day, people could enjoy live opera, get a relaxing massage, have their picture taken and printed in a dedicated frame, listen to stories of Ghent and much more. To close the birthday in style, there was a big birthday cake. In total, some 3.300 celebrated with us. 

A year completed is also a moment to round up some accomplishments. Here are some statistics. 

Valletta Treaty
The Netherlands have decided to implement the Valletta Treaty by integrating it in the existing spatial law system, zoning plans and building permits. This integration of archaeology in spatial planning creates tension between the academics and creators of spatial quality, taking into account that we have a so called “polluter pays “principle. The idea behind the law is that archaeology should be one of the providers of that quality. Preconditions for cooperation are however joint goals and products. How can this be achieved? In our spatial projects we take three steps to assure that Heritage is an integrated part of the decision making as the only solution to create general involvement. We call this method Reverse Heritage®-smart heritage.

First we reverse the working process. Instead of immediately executing the administrational protocol of steps to get a building permit, we sit down and try to define the goals and targets to be achieved at the end of the project Second, we do not define our goals in an academic professional vacuum. We enlarge the decision making perspective to all stakeholders involved in spatial development. In order to create responsibility and involvement. We put them all at the decision making table (eg, the heritage professional, the administration, politics, developer and user/civilian). With this group we set the heritage ambition in general and manage this to a more specific goal after the assessment field research.

Third,  to come to a set of shared goals for all stakeholders it will be necessary to find an equal balance between the three elements of heritage management;
1. the production of knowledge
2. the long term physical protection of heritage find spots and finds
3. the utilization or commodification of knowledge in heritage

Before the implementation of the new law, the emphasis laid on academic knowledge production. Now we have two extra pieces of the pie to take into account. One may even argue that the opportunities for the utilisation or commodification of heritage in spatial developments, leisure industry or for educational purposes, should be an important selection criteria for field research.

Fourth, as professionals we have to help stakeholders to create utilisation goals. We do this by telling the story of the site and the area to be developed and transform this into the digital, virtual, and physical world. We create identity and image as a starting point for the marketing and branding of the area. We inspire developers and architects to transform the past into the future by using the history.
    
Fifth, It may be clear that using this method for defining a different heritage scope, has great impact on the control aspects of projects such as budget, finance, exploitation planning, information and quality management. There is more to do than just budgeting research and other goals for heritage and make sure the money is available for all these goals. Protection and especially utilisation should be paid out of the same budget and not afterwards, when the money is usually spent.

Nevertheless by using the Reverse Heritage method we aim to create identity in new spatial development.  To use the words of the Spanish writer Louis Aragon: “I’ve made up the past again to see the beauty of the future”.

Drs. Boudewijn Goudswaard, Archaeologist and owner at The-missinglink, Utrecht

The backbone of that quarter is a NW-SE oriented street, later known as the Korte Ridderstraat, which is now believed to be part of the medieval trade route overland from Bruges to Cologne. The occupancy along this axis shows a sophisticated balance between buildings and open space, between enclosure and perspective.

Analysis of the archaeological data gave evidence of a strong urban vision directing the spatial development of that quarter. The street intersections or enlargements functioned as small squares, which played an important role in the fabric of the medieval and pre-modern city. Only a few of them grew out to real squares (considered as such) in modern times. Those ‘small squares’ are often neglected in classical urban topography, which is rather focussed on the larger squares, with well-known economical, political or ceremonial functions. This urban phenomenon was not unique to Ghent, but appears to have been predominant in other medieval cities as well.

The research into the archaeological soil archive led to another, quite unexpected conclusion: the successive phases of the spatial development of the Emile Braun square from the medieval period onwards – e.g. in the 15th century, in the later 17th century, and in the early 19th century – appear to have been surprisingly well planned and carefully designed. This insight in urban planning is completely new. Until now, the loosely defined open space known as the Emile Braun square was considered to be the unintended result of successive and ill-considered clearances of building blocks, surrounded by rear facades.
 
In short, the archaeological evidence falsify some wide spread – but erroneous – ideas about spatial development at the heart of the city centre. From this experience we can learn once more that, prior to large development projects, a thorough interdisciplinary (archaeological, historical and built historical) research is needed to get fully grasp of the ‘genius loci’ and to take this into account when designing the reconstruction of old city quarters, especially in interpretive plans.

Marie Christine Laleman and Geert Vermeiren', Gent

Chester's heritage
The Chester contribution to PORTICO has centred on the City Walls particularly the towers, Morgans Mount, Thimbleys Tower, King Charles Tower and the Water Tower. New interpretation panels are being designed to help explain the significance of the Walls whilst an innovative 'App' is being developed to act as an interactive guide to the Walls. There will also be a new interpretation element at the Newgate and the Roddee.

Topics to share
During the partnermeeting, several specialists from Chester, Gent, Koln and Utrecht gave a presentation on different studies that are made in the PORTICO project. In this PORTICO newsletter October 2011, we share their topics.

Chester Tour
The PORTICO partners were also taken on a guided tour of Chester on the Heritage tours open decked bus to see all of the areas included with the project.

In her introduction speech in the course of the PORTICO Partnermeeting in Chester, Marianne Gechter presented a successfully realised Private Public Partnership model using the example of the Ubian Monument. The City of Cologne has set up a regulatory framework for such models, which has been applied several times already. Apparently, such models are also interesting for other members of PORTICO.

In Germany the “Bundesländer” (regions) are responsible for the protection of monuments. Each “Bundesland” has different laws. In North Rhine Westphalia this is regulated by the “law for the conservation of ancient monuments“. Nevertheless the City of Cologne has an exception. Here the “lex colonia” guarantees the independence of archaeology in Cologne. At the moment there are two different departments: on one hand the “Archaeological Zone”, which is responsible for the area where the new museum is being built as well as for the Ubian Monument, and on the other hand the “Romano-Germanic Museum”, which is responsible for all other parts in the city.

The legal situation of North Rhine Westphalia states that the discovery of archaeological findings has to be reported immediately to the authorities. If archaeological remains are discovered, the “Department for the Protection and Preservation of Monuments” is entitled to stop the building activities up to six months to organize the necessary excavations. The “Departments for the Preservation of Monuments” are to be involved in the planning processes and building applications. If there is any evidence from surveys or former excavations that indicate considerable findings are to be expected they can impose conditions, for excavation etc. The regulations even allow the expropriation of private owners of monuments.

In reality the department and the private investors sign contracts according to the costs-by-cause principle. The investor pays a certain amount for the excavation or hires a company for archaeological research. So the department can save money and therefore guarantees that the excavation will start when it is suitable for the investor. It is a key agreement to make sure that the excavations will not take longer than necessary.

When unexpected, important findings are revealed or when it comes to preservation of any findings this agreement can be modified or even rejected by the city. This case might be very rare but it means that the building plan has to be changed and the investor has to bear the additional costs.

During the PORTICO meeting it turned out that other partner cities have the same problems with the current regulative specifications for preserving historical and archaeological findings. However a successful implemented Private Public Partnership not only has to involve the investor/owner on one side, but also the residents and people working or living in the area. The communication agency of the Archaeological Zone “BSX Bader & Schmölzer Ldt.” therefore has developed a communication master-plan, presented by Astrid Bader.

The Ubian Monument is situated in an unusual surrounding in the basement of an apartment building. The people living in and near this building can influence the success of the project considerably. Therefore a specific communication strategy has to be developed to get in touch with this target group.

The goal is to involve and to inspire local residents, to identify themselves with the historical site and to be proud of it. It is also necessary winning these locals as partners to create a multiplier effect.
Locals can gain appreciation of the area they live in and get in touch with the local community and neighbours, which could help to create a new district and change the image of the area they live in. For this reason a number of activities will be organized – e.g. guided tours with local guides, discussion and information meetings, events for owners of restaurants, hotels, shops etc.

Another important element of this concept is the "Private Public Partnership", which includes a close cooperation with the owner of the building in order to upgrade the economic value of the building by installing a new bus stop, free renovation of the entrance or a special branding of the site. In the foyer visitors should be invited to a time travel and experience history by multimedia presentations, photo exhibition and other modern presentation methods.

Another important target group of our project are schools and students. Students should learn about their cultural heritage and the history of the city in a way that is interesting for them. For schools tailored projects for every age group will be arranged. Every student gets the chance to become a “student scout”, who guides other students through the historical site.

Further ideas include special multimedia presentations such as a TV-documentation about the Archaeological Zone and the Ubian Monument, the "Ave Civitas" Digital Storytelling workshop or podcasts for audioguides, as well as social media presentations on Wiki, Facebook, Archaeology-Blogs and YouTube.

Other target groups that should be reached are students, museums, journalists, archaeologists, tour guides, tourist offices, EU-sponsors and local politicians.

Astrid Bader, BSX Bader & Schmölzer GmbH