The Limes

The landscape is a legible palimpsest.[1] This means that, with some effort, we can still discern the almost vanished historical layers in the landscape. For example, we can still see traces of Roman times. In my images, I expose the hidden layers of the places along the Limes in the landscape.

The places I have photographed are all protected by UNESCO World Heritage status, with their archaeological value mainly lying underground. The question that interests me is: what made this specific place so important to the Romans? Why here in particular? And could we still experience that today?

In a sense, the Limes runs parallel to the Rhine River. However, the course of this river is always subject to change. Over the past two thousand years, its course has been altered several times. This can be clearly seen along this ancient Roman border.

Important places along the Limes, such as Fort Vechten near Bunnik, are no longer located on the water, but in this case along the A12 motorway. The town of Neuss-Koenenlager, on the other hand, is still located on the Rhine, at the point where the Erft River flows into the Rhine. Just like the Romans, you can look out over the river landscape of the Rhine and the Waal from the moraine near the Hunerberg and the Kops Plateau in Nijmegen.

The confluence of rivers as a logical location for trade and as a strategic military site was essential for the Romans to settle there. In addition, natural resources played a role, such as the limestone in Iversheim or the clay near the Holdeurn in Berg en Dal, which was used to make roof tiles.

The landscape’s qualities were thus put to very good use. Even today, if you look at a map of the area where the Romans were located, you can see that the link with the river or other natural elements is obvious. However, without this knowledge of history, you quickly overlook the piece of forest, the residential area, or the hill that is there now. With historical and archaeological knowledge, the landscape becomes legible[2], enriching the experience of the contemporary landscape. In this way, the landscape is a palimpsest, layer upon layer upon layer revealing history, in this case that of the Limes.

In my photography, I have developed a process that combines many elements[3]. I take my photographs based on my direct experience of the landscape through walking and observing, combined with my knowledge of a place. I combine these into a single composite image that ultimately forms the essence of that place and its landscape qualities. In this way, I bring the almost vanished layers of the landscape back to the surface.

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[1] A palimpsest is a reused piece of parchment bearing a manuscript. The top layer of this parchment with the text on it was scraped off so that the parchment could be rewritten. One might expect that this practice resulted in the loss of many ancient writings, but the opposite is true. Often, the original text remained partially visible, and under ultraviolet light, the seemingly removed text can still be deciphered. Jeroen van Westen, “Van Palimpsest naar Archief,” Metaforen van Ruimte en Tijd., (Stichting Bruggelings, Flevoland 1996), 65.

[2] Kevin Lynch was the first to coin the term legibility in relation to landscape, particularly in the context of urban landscape. Lynch describes the term legibility as follows: “by this we mean the ease with which its parts [of the landscape] can be recognaized and can be organized into a coherent pattern”. Kevin Lynch, The image of the city, (Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1960), 6.

[3] I first applied this method in the project Earthly Windows, in which I combine different viewpoints and perspectives, inspired by the contradictory and hybrid use of perspective by the Italian painter Giambattista Tiepolo. This is very well explained in the dissertation on this painter by Dr. Wim Kranendonk. Loek van Vliet, Aardse Vensters. (Rijswijk: Sub-Publishing, 2020)