The Antonine Wall Management Plan 2013-18 - Glasgow City Council

Chapter seven
The Statement of
Outstanding
Universal Value
7.1 The Antonine Wall is protected and managed in
accordance with its Statement of Outstanding
Universal Value (SOUV). The World Heritage
Committee has asked that an SOUV is developed
for every World Heritage Site. This defines the
elements within a Site which make it important
and which should be protected in order to
maintain its significance. The Committee and
their advisory bodies use this document to assess
any potential threats to the WHS.
7.2 There are strict guidelines governing the
development of an SOUV which can only
include the elements for which the Site was
originally inscribed. OUV is defined in paragraph
49 of the UNESCO Operational Guidelines as
‘cultural and/or natural significance which is so
exceptional as to transcend national boundaries
and to be of common importance for present
and future generations of humanity. As such,
the permanent protection of this heritage is
of the highest importance to the international
community as a whole’. What this actually
means is that the range of values a property
displays must be considered to go beyond
national borders and has significance for
everyone in the world now, and in the future.
A Site is deemed to have Outstanding Universal
Value if it can be shown to satisfy at least one
of the ten criteria for assessment as set out in
Section 77 of the Operational Guidelines.
7.3 The current SOUV for the Antonine Wall can
be found at Appendix A. This was adopted
upon inscription in 2008. It is, however, likely
to change over the period of the 2013-18
Management Plan as one SOUV for the entire
FREWHS is developed and submitted to
UNESCO for adoption by the World Heritage
Committee.
Significance
7.4 The Antonine Wall is one part of a much larger
World Heritage Site. The Roman Empire, in
its territorial extent, was one of the greatest
empires the world has known. Enclosing the
Mediterranean world and surrounding areas,
it was protected by a network of frontiers
stretching from the Atlantic Coast in the
west, to the Black Sea in the east; from central
Scotland in the north to the northern fringes
of the Sahara Desert in the south. It was largely
constructed in the second century AD when the
Empire reached its greatest extent. Together, the
inscribed remains, and those to be nominated
The base of the Antonine Wall visible in New Kilpatrick Cemetery
Bar Hill Fort: bath-house
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