Exhibition: Different than Expected – Romans in the Netherlands

What do you picture when you think of the Romans? Perhaps white men from Rome who are always fighting. Or an impenetrable frontier of walls, watchtowers and soldiers. After all, that is what the pictures in school textbooks looked like. But is this image actually accurate? That is what the team behind Constructing the Limes is investigating. Using new techniques and new ways of looking at the past, they are discovering that history is often more complex than we have long thought.

How you look at history is determined not only by the knowledge you have, but also by the time in which you live — and by who is telling you the story. Look at history from a different perspective, and it can look very different.

That is why the researchers of Constructing the Limes all have different areas of expertise, ranging from archaeology to politics and from geology to art history. They are joined by amateur archaeologists: enthusiastic volunteers with extensive knowledge and experience. Together, they are building as complete a picture as possible of life along the Roman frontier in the Netherlands.

In Different than expected, we highlight nine striking new insights. You will see, for example, what can happen when old finds are examined using new techniques. How an inconspicuous fragment can sometimes tell big stories. And how politicians today deliberately use particular images of the Romans to persuade people that they are right.

But there is a catch: the story we tell is not set in stone either. Research and the way we understand and represent the past are always changing. That is why we invite you to stay curious and to look at the past with a critical eye. Because who knows what hidden stories are still waiting to be discovered?

You can visit the exhibition from 3 September at the Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen.