The 3D reconstruction of the Late Roman castellum of Maastricht is the result of a collaboration between Kelly Gillikin Schoueri, assistant researcher with the PURE3D Project and PhD candidate at Maastricht University, and two archaeologists from the Municipality of Maastricht, Eric Wetzels and Gilbert Soeters (see bio notes below). The project began in 2024 and focuses on interpreting the archaeological sources that support a 3D presentation of the Roman fort built in Maastricht in the early 4th century CE. Its overarching aim is to bring together more than a century of excavations into a single coherent visual environment that serves both public engagement and ongoing scholarly inquiries.
The Late Roman Castellum 3D project is embedded within the broader activities of the PURE3D Project, which was funded between 2021 and 2024 by the Platform Digitale Infrastructuur–Social Sciences and Humanities (PDI-SSH). At the same time, the creation process and final output form part of Kelly’s doctoral thesis, Interfacing with 3D Heritage: Three-Dimensional Scholarly Publishing and the Future of Sustainable 3D Research. Her research examines how interface technologies shape the scholarly reception, interpretation and reuse of 3D heritage work.
Kelly Gillikin Schoueri is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University. As the author of this 3D scholarly edition, she created the 3D scene, wrote the annotations and narrative text and implemented the digital storytelling experience in Voyager. She holds degrees in archaeology and museum studies from the University of Michigan (2010–2014) and the University of Edinburgh (2015–2016) and has worked with archaeological interpretation and 3D visualisation since 2016.
Eric Wetzels is an archaeologist and scientific policy officer for cultural heritage at the Municipality of Maastricht (2016 to present). He studied Classical Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam (1987–1993) and has served as a municipal archaeologist (2003–2006) and as director of both Centre Céramique and the Natural History Museum Maastricht (2006–2016).
Gilbert Soeters is policy officer for archaeology at the Municipality of Maastricht. He studied Roman and Medieval Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam and Art History in Utrecht. He has worked as a municipal archaeologist since 2005 and became head of the cultural heritage cluster in 2007, serving as the authority for all archaeological matters in the city.
Together with their colleagues, Eric and Gilbert oversee the management, preservation and research of Maastricht’s archaeological heritage and maintain close contact with developers, public administrations and archaeological companies to ensure this work is shared with relevant stakeholders. For this 3D scholarly edition, the two archaeologists met regularly with Kelly for project discussions on the reconstruction process as well as to supply their expertise, additional resources and guided site visits of still-accessible archaeological remains. 