Limeskastell

[richsc]

Who's been here?
http://www.limeskastell-pohl.de/new/

[mcbishop]

Who's been here?
http://www.limeskastell-pohl.de/new/

Me.

Mike Bishop

[Robert]

Well, what did you think of it :? Worth the while?

[mcbishop]

Well, what did you think of it :? Worth the while?

I don't know, some people are never happy! I answered the question, didn't I? ;-)

My thoughts comparing the whole German Limes (specifically the Limes Weg) experience with Hadrian's Wall are documented here. LK Pohl is really nice, but not perfect (it can't be, given building regs, practical issues etc etc; e.g. it has digital projection facilities, which I'm pretty sure the Romans didn't have). I do however guarantee that in 10, possibly 20, years, German academics will be telling us it's all wrong wrong wrong and they now think completely differently :-D

Mike Bishop

[Robert]

Ah, thanks.

Haven't been there yet, but looking at the reconstruction under way, there seem to have been no concern for any authentic building methods, it seems just the outer shell, with styrofoam blocks in the embankment. Also, the watchtower and Kleinkastell are from two different periods. However, it is a great way of letting visitors experience the scale and appearance of Roman buildings.

[richsc]

Ok, so I should not have asked a yes/no question. Can you who have visited expound?

[mcbishop]

Ok, so I should not have asked a yes/no question. Can you who have visited expound?

As Robert observed, it is a modern construction made to look like the original as closely as feasible. You have to bear in mind that a) Kleinkastell Pohl was elsewhere, this was built on a convenient plot; b) the watchtower is too close and connected by a wheelchair-friendly bridge); c) there is a ramp running up the inside of the rampart to get the wheelchairs up to walkway height; and d) the thing is built to modern standards to look like the original if you don't inspect it too closely (e.g. the nails holding cladding on appear to be galvanised). You can forgive the misplaced watchtower, however, since it makes such an excellent photo platform ;-)

It is very easy to pick holes (you can do the same with the Lunt, Segedunum, Arbeia etc etc) but it at least serves to engage Joe Public in a way that a noticeboard or a model cannot always do. Even using augmented reality (point your smartphone and a 3D reconstruction appears on the screen, superimposed on the ruin) there is not the immersive experience (oooh, heritage speak!) of walking into the full-size thing. Kaiser Bill and Jacobi had it right at Saalburg and things haven't changed (except we'd do Saalburg differently now: where are the corner towers?!).

I like Pohl and think Hadrian's Wall is the poorer for not having something similar. For all the 'wrong' bits, there are things like the absence of roof guttering and the use of eavesdrips which are important to show to people (having just been to Pompeii and Herculaneum, where a lot of the reconstructions use gutters despite the obvious presence of eavesdrip channels). Similarly, I think the gateway at South Shields, despite being a Laing's stone-clad-concrete monstrosity, is worth it for showing people pivoted (not hinged) gates.

All in all, Pohl is a plus, but best of all for me is that the Germans have a street named after the KK's excavator, Ernst Fabricius, who is also the only archaeologist with a bit of Hadrian's Wall named after him: kudos!

Not to be too positive, though, I was rather disappointed with the Römerwelt project at Rheinbrohl which seemed mainly aimed at kids and completely missed a trick by only having German captions in its museum area, where the Roman army gets explained (much of the rest of the Limes is bi- or even trilingual in its captioning). The first major attraction on the Limesweg (we don't talk about watchtower 1/1, it seems; like 90% of the others, it is now thought inaccurate) and it's a damp squib.

Mike Bishop

[richsc]

Thanks Mike. It is the types of permanent display that would be great over here,given the funding. Hopefully with not too many compromises.