{"id":16174,"date":"2024-03-29T09:43:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T07:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/4608-2\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:18:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:18:29","slug":"4608-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/4608-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Success of \u201cHeel Heerlen Graaft!\u201d Leads to a Follow-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":{"categorie":33,"afbeelding":10993,"auteur":"Harry Lindelauf","fotografie":"","contentbuilder":[{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst","tekst":"<h2>You search for the Romans of Heerlen with 150 volunteers and more than 20 archaeologists. That results in 8,551 small finds from the past. But the greatest discovery concerns the present: the shared enthusiasm and the \u201csquare-metre friendships\u201d \u2014 a term likely to make it into the Van Dale dictionary.<\/h2>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_foto","tekst":"The enthusiasm of residents in the Roman Quarter was expressed contagiously during the return day on 1 March by Aartje Jager-Van den Berg. Alderman for Culture Jordy Clemens presented her with the first copy of the book documenting the scorching excavation weekend. \u201cI want to dig more holes in my garden. I can\u2019t wait. You walk in your own garden on top of your own past,\u201d Aartje said proudly.\r\nFor her, digging goes deeper than the tangible finds unearthed in September 2023: \u201cI hoped a Roman would be found in my garden. But we only saw a lot of gravel. That\u2019s fine, though.\u201d\r\n\r\nAt other excavation sites too, the archaeological initiative fostered connection \u2014 between neighbours, and between citizen researchers and professionals. Archaeologist Gerard Tichelman called the experience in Heerlen \u201csurprising and enriching\u201d: \u201cIt was heartwarming and inspiring to tell these incredibly interested people about archaeology.\u201d\r\nParticipant Luc Peters speaks in the book of the \u201csquare-metre friendships\u201d that arose during Heel Heerlen Graaft!.","foto":10996},{"acf_fc_layout":"foto_tekst","foto":11005,"tekst":"<h3>Remains of a Large Roman Building<\/h3>\r\nThe crowd at the return day for citizen scientists and professionals at Heerlen\u2019s city hall showed that the enthusiasm had survived the winter. And it was rewarded with the announcement that the project will continue in 2025.\r\nAccording to Alderman Jordy Clemens, the largest archaeological event in the Netherlands yielded many small finds \u2014 mainly from three time periods: the Roman era, the 11th\u201312th centuries, and the 19th\u201320th centuries.\r\n\r\nThe Roman finds consist mainly of fragments of roof tiles, domestic pottery, and natural stone used as building material.\r\nAfter 150 years of research, Heel Heerlen Graaft! has brought new insights.\r\nPieces of Kunrader stone and a layer of mortar show that a large Roman building once stood near Tempsplein and Raadhuisplein. At the deepest point of the excavation, remains of a foundation from an older wooden structure were found.\r\n\r\nPhoto: The return day was also attended by a decuria of legionaries on their way to Roman Cologne."},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_foto","tekst":"<h3>Exploratory Operations<\/h3>\r\nThe citizen research in Heerlen is linked to a four-year study of the Roman northern frontier along the Rhine, from Remagen near Bonn to Katwijk on the North Sea.\r\nProject leader Dr. Saskia Stevens of Utrecht University expressly thanked the Heerlen excavators: \u201cThanks to you, we were able to carry out all these exploratory operations.\u201d She announced that the results of the sedaDNA research will soon be published. These findings come from organic soil samples taken from the excavation pits.\r\nThe Limes project aims to gain insight into the Roman import of plants, animals, and foodstuffs.\r\n\r\nPhoto: Chef Evert Hartman of De Twee Gezusters in the Luciushof and Friend of the Via Belgica cooked a Roman ragout with pork and herbs used by the Romans \u2014 including asafoetida, which the chef described as \u201cgarlic on steroids.\u201d","foto":10999},{"acf_fc_layout":"slideshow","slideshow":[11008,11011,11017,11020,11023,11026,11029,11032,11035,11005,10999,10996,10993]}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16174"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16180,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16174\/revisions\/16180"}],"acf:term":[{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"category","href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}