Early March, we had the chance to visit the Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen in Schleswig, Germany. Occasion was the official opening of their new museum building, a project which was at least ten years in the making, but it was an excellent opportunity for preparations of the RETOLD meeting which will take place here in Autumn-Winter 2023. EXARC is the lead partner in this cooperation project. This meeting in late 2023 in Dithmarschen is foreseen to be a study meeting where we will discuss progress of the EU project, very important because coming winter we will enter the final year of the project. We visited the possible hotel where RETOLD will stay and looked at all the technicalities of the new museum building as well as the logistics of traveling and where to eat.

Next steps will be to discuss availability with the other RETOLD partners and hopefully agree on tentative dates when we meet already end March in Sibiu Romania. We also discussed the March meeting in detail, the administration of RETOLD in general and the progress.

Drs Kelm and Paardekooper also discussed the current state of archaeological open-air museums, challenges in Germany and Denmark and larger international research projects. We agreed that it is a blessing to have a good advisory board. Finally, we talked about the Association Megalithic Routes which includes several EXARC members like the Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen (DE) and Hunebedcentrum Borger (NL).

We congratulated Dr Kelm and his staff with a job well done and look forward to continue our fruitful cooperation.