Engineering the past

Identifying heritage in a timely manner and devising solutions for the client to minimize costs and stagnation is the role Vestigia Archaeology & Cultural History of tradition. The archaeology and cultural history consulting and research firm advocates early involvement and attention in plan development through "engineering the past," as archaeology only "solves" during implementation almost always leads to friction, higher costs and lost time.

Archaeology is always associated in the image with excavation. "It is perceived as difficult, never comes out and costs money," says Wilfried Hessing of Vestigia. "We try to indicate that excavation is the final piece of archaeology, only in the - for the builder - worst case scenario, it has to be done. In fact, there is a whole process preceding to avoid having to excavate. And the earlier you start that, the lower the cost of archaeology during construction. Unfortunately, we have recently seen more and more cases where we are not flown in until the execution starts. Archaeological guidance at the time of the work may seem like a tactical solution, but it is actually a very bad thing. Both from a construction and archaeological perspective. 'Watching along' always poses a risk. Suppose something is found, the work has to be stopped and it always takes longer than if you do research beforehand, and you are more expensive. From an archaeological perspective, it's also bad because the observation capabilities in most guidance work are far from ideal, and therefore interesting information is often missed."

From risk to opportunity

Trying to do everything at once only when you actually get into the ground is thus not exactly a pragmatic approach in most cases, says Jeroen Flamman of Vestigia. "Moreover, not being able to delineate costs and time in advance, because you are weaving workflows together as it were, increases the risk of misunderstanding. Through thorough preliminary research, we turn archaeology from a risk into an opportunity. An opportunity to save costs, but also an opportunity to possibly make use of relics from the past, and the story that goes with it, to add something to a project. For example, by giving a new residential area a unique piece of historical identity. People experience it as positive if they know something about the roots of their own living environment." Hessing adds: "That is the role we fill in infra projects: a good advisor to the client and contractor so that projects can be carried out optimally. On the basis of the thorough preliminary investigation, excavation work then has to be carried out in the field in some cases, but in most cases not at all. Through clever incorporation, for example, further research is not necessary and a project can be carried out without archaeological excavations or guidance. But then you have to be willing and able to take those steps at an early stage. It helps if the developer himself realizes this first and does not wait for the government involved to come up with all kinds of preconditions."

Wind farms

Vestigia is currently involved in several projects right from the engineering stage, both on land and on water. "For the Rijksdienst van Ondernemend Nederland, we are mapping the risks of areas in the North Sea for the construction of a series of new wind farms," says Hessing. "There may be wrecks or other obstacles there, or capped prehistoric sites. Based on data gathered from third parties - for foundation and explosives research, for example - we assess the archaeological value. Not with the aim of excavating them, but mainly to verify the position of the windmill pylons. If there is a historically valuable shipwreck at that location, for example, the foundation is moved. By surveying archaeology at an early stage, you don't run into all kinds of unforeseen and extreme costs during execution." And Vestigia does the same for a lot of projects on land. "We give archaeology a place in a project, so that the contractor can do his work unhindered as much as possible, but meanwhile meet the obligations of archaeological research," concludes Flamman.