Martin Thoma

An archaeological monument is typically a rather inconspicuous land formation. Fortifications, settlements and excavation areas become apparent only to the trained eye or under the competent guidance of experts.
The state of preservation of these sites of discovery, which are often overgrown, rather limits the imagination. By simply using a mobile phone or any other type of portable information system the discovery site will become an experience and an adventure as one catches a glimpse, on site, into previous living worlds.

The project, begun in 2006 under the working title “Hunsrück & Middle Rhine History”, intends to facilitate this. This project is divided into three parts: Firstly, it aims at a networking of all museums and exhibitions in the Hunsrück and on the Middle Rhine with the target of realizing common marketing activities.
Secondly, well known and accessible field monuments and archaeological sites are being reconstructed virtually and presented in short films. A download platform on the Internet provides access to a guided tour in sight and sound. Thirdly, the Internet platform Regional History will offer to anybody interested in history or archaeology a systematic overview of the history of the Hunsrück and Middle Rhine area. Half of the project’s costs are covered by the EU rural development fund LEADER and the other half is borne by a consortium of 12 communities.

The primary aim of the project is the advancement of tourism in the Hunsrück and Middle Rhine region by the promotion of its historical and cultural heritage.

The latest developments in the field of telecommunication and portable information systems give us the idea that in a few years, at any time and in any place, people will access Internet platforms as nearly inexhaustible sources of information. As a start, the institute of historical cultural studies at the University of Mainz (IGL) has developed an Internet-portal for the Rhein-Hessen-area. This portal www.regionalgeschichte.net enables the co-operation between people interested in regional history, associations and institutions. A richly illustrated selection of architectural and field monuments is to be found here.

Thanks to a more and more widespread and clearly higher data transmission rate (DSL, WLAN; UMTS) today, the transmission of video formats via Internet or mobile telephone systems has become possible. The “small” films can be played on different terminal equipment. On the one hand, of course, on PCs and Laptops but also on PDAs, iPods, Playstation Portable and even on mobile phones.
There are no actual, reconstructed buildings in the Rhine-Hunsrück district. Their value is debatable anyway as the architecture of a reconstructed building has an intense and concrete presence which may over-influence the imagination of visitors. Additionally, antique buildings are often only one part of the building history, which is – by the reconstruction – reduced to one phase.

In contrast, far more cost-efficient virtual reconstructions have the advantage of showing all phases of development and can be updated to include any new findings about buildings and their construction history. Field monuments – hitherto idle resources – thus contribute to a region’s attractiveness to tourists. Region and landscape are turning into an open-air museum.