Welcome to the first Antonine Wall News for October 2008. This newsletter will be produced quarterly.

There has long been an intention to create an Antonine Wall Newsletter. This is the first tentative step towards such a publication, as it is a letter and it does contain news. The most significant news, of course, is the successful nomination of the Antonine Wall as a World Heritage Site.

Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, congratulates David Breeze on the Antonine Wall gaining World Heritage Site status during his visit to Scotland in August 2008

It is clear that the Antonine Wall faces changed days. Over the last year in particular I have been much encouraged by the enormous enthusiasm for this project. We have a great challenge ahead, but I am sure that we can rise to it.  In the meantime, I hope that you find this useful and, in your spare time (!) you may care to consider a title for an Antonine Wall Newsletter.

David Breeze

The Antonine Wall - A World Heritage Site
On 7 July 2008, the World Heritage Committee voted unanimously to include the monument in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire WHS where it joins Hadrian’s Wall and the German limes. At the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Quebec, I was encouraged by the positive reaction of Francesco Bandarin, Director of the World Heritage Centre, who proposed that UNESCO hold a conference at Paris to bring together all potential member countries of the FRE WHS.

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The Management Plan
Now that the Antonine Wall is a WHS, the next step is to implement the Management Plan. Thus runs from 2007 to 2012. The Management Plan Working Group has met regularly over the last two years. It has appointed subgroups dealing with access (both physical and intellectual), protection, landscape, documentation and research.

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Publications
I returned from Quebec to considerable newspaper coverage of our success. At that point we also published a leaflet on the Antonine Wall, which had been prepared over the previous few weeks. 15,000 copies were printed and have all been distributed. I also returned to a number of requests to give lectures and write articles. To date, I have written articles for or contributed information to nearly 20 magazines and newsletters. These include:

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The Culture 2000 project
In June 2008, the Culture 2000 programme, Frontiers of the Roman Empire, ended with the publication of a volume of essays detailing the work to date. Colleagues in Germany, Austria,  Hungary and Slovakia have obtained further EU funding to develop proposals for the extension of the FRE WHS into the river frontiers of Europe. One problem here is determining the essential linking elements of the WHS – should it be the line of the river or the military road?

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