Review article

Boundaries of the Roman Empire - the world's heritage monument

Igor Vukmanić ; museum of archeology Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

Abstract

Limes had an economic and cultural impact on all aspects
of provincial life in the Roman Empire. All its properly
preserved parts in Europe, Asia and Africa will be
included in the UNESCO list of the world’s cultural heritage
as one and only transborder, multinational monument.
Hadrian’s Wall and Antoninus’s Wall in Great Britain and
also Uppergerman-rhaetic limes in Germany had already
been included in that list. The scientific mainstay of the project
offers the Bratislava group. The goal of its members is
to coordinate documentation on Roman borders, develop a
research strategy, manage a monument, its protection and
exposure to the public and overcoming the differences in
research tradition of various countries. The group is made
of country representatives which included a limes section
in the world’s heritage list, the countries that nominated the
limes section for that list and the countries that officially
submitted a request for UNESCO’s nomination. The members
of Bratislava group from Croatia are Mirjana Sanader
and Igor Vukmanić.
Since in Croatia, as in other interested countries, so
far only European, preparations have been underway for
including a limes section in the world’s heritage list, by
an initiative of Ministry of Culture the Danube limes in
Croatia applied in 2005 and was included in the UNESCO
tentative list. In order to accelerate the investigation of
this poorly researched limes section, in 2008 the research
office was founded in Archaelogical museum in Osijek and
whose head is Igor Vukmanić. He gathers documentation,
archival material and charts of areas where the Limes was
built. A field survey is being carried out on the basis of the
collected materials and also for the future a choice of sites
that will be included on a protected area list. The web-site
of the Croatian limes section is on http://www.dunavskilimes-
amo.com.hr/ and is funded by the UNESCO office in
Venice - Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe
(BRESCE).
The preserved Roman border fragments are symbols
of the sustained heritage values, they are a regenerator for a
landscape, an educational tool and a recreational source. At
an international level it is vital nowadays to find balance in
prevention, preservation, conservation and approach to the
monument, local community interests and its sustained economic
usage. Since the Roman Empire borders are a part of
mutual cultural heritage of 20 countries, their remains are
of interest and linkage of an international significance. The
general public can be introduced to the project Frontiers of
the Roman Empire, a serial of the recent published guidances
referring to the topic and via official web-sites. It is necessary
to carry out a very demanding procedure according
to instructions of the Convention on world’s heritage protection
and by enforcing the national laws which will lead
to inclusion of the Croatian limes section in the UNESCO
list of the world’s cultural heritage. It will arouse interest,
raise consciousness about the monument and facilitate the
experience exchange among countries that are nowadays in
the area of the former Roman Empire.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

95582

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/95582

Publication date:

20.5.2010.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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