Climate justice is hampered by a lack of awareness and consensus on actions. Offering imaginative scenarios and unconventional approaches, Art & Artistic Research enhance awareness and empower people to move from awareness to action. JUST ART mobilises this potential for a climate just future in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Valkenburg Z.H.: a springboard for the conquest of Britannia! In 2020, archaeologists accidentally discovered a large Roman army camp near Valkenburg Z.H. dating to the period of the emperors Caligula and Claudius. New research on this important archaeological site demonstrates the strategic role of the Rhine’s estuary for the invasion of Britannia in 43 CE.

Mimesis or imitation comes in many forms. Biologists study animal and plant mimicry to account for the ways in which imitation occurs in the natural world. Artists seek to copy ‘from life’, or attempt to produce a recognisable representation of a subject. ‘Gucci’ watches may be bought for a few dollars by the roadside, while real Gucci watches fetch thousands in high-end shops. These practices make sense in light of particular sets of standards for material reproduction, defined under specific local cultural, social, political and intellectual circumstances. Mimesis is a problematic action; it touches on abstractions that have great importance for forging consensus, justifying faith, commanding assent or mobilising further action. Yet these abstractions require continual maintenance and policing if they are to retain their value. What is it that is ‘natural’ in mimicry? How do artists learn which features of the original need to be shown in a ‘good copy’ – and, indeed, what even counts as ‘an original’? What role does context play in judging the price of two watches? Last but not least, who is qualified to answer any of these questions? The present volume brings together scholars from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in order to address material practices of mimesis. Its essays encompass a broad set of themes, highlighting stimulating and thought-provoking synergies in scholarship on art, architecture, religion, science and medicine, philosophy, archaeology, museology and conservation (whether of works of art or the environment). Our authors reflect on how, in mimetic practice, materials may be used to produce forms of order and value, or to control time; on the effect of copying as a set of social and material practices on the meaning of objects; and on the embeddedness of material artefacts within human networks of fabrication, exchange, use, knowledge and display.

Constructing the Limes (C-LIMES) investigates how borders function, how they impact landscape and society, and how they can become appropriated and made visible as cultural and political constructs. The focus is on the borderscape of the Lower Rhine limes, the frontier zone of the Roman Empire situated today in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. All known limes infrastructure (forts, temporary camps, roads, watch towers) will be studied, analysed and mapped providing an integral image of the border’s materiality. With the participation of volunteers and citizen scientists, new archaeological finds as well as finds stored in municipal depots will be sorted, analysed, and cataloged in an open access database (PAN). As a result, we can get an integral picture of the movement of goods and ideas within the limes borderscape. The application of new archaeological techniques, such as strontium (Sr) isotope analysis and environmental DNA, will enable us to reconstruct the regional and inter-regional mobility of people, and provide insight into their diet and general health. The project furthermore studies the reception of the limes: how was the border (re)constructed in later periods and revived for the benefit of nation building and the creation of a national, regional, and European identity. This twofold approach will help us to better understand current attitudes towards borders and will enable us to contribute to – and perhaps adjust – contemporary public debates regarding borders and cultural interactions by historic knowledge. Together with our societal partners we will support the limes as UNESCO World Heritage site, disseminate the scientific results to a wide audience, and create a dialogue between science and society around our shared past.