Archaeology

Woerden, in the central part of The Netherlands, is a locality where the amateur-archaeologist Pieter Stoel collected several thousands of fossil mammalian remains of Pleistocene age. The stratigraphically-mixed assemblage includes a broad variety of taxa including species that are indicative of interglacial conditions such as Hippopotamus sp. as well as species that inhabited the area during glacial episodes e.g. Mammuthus primigenius and Coelodonta antiquitatis. The fossil remains have an early Middle Pleistocene – Late Pleistocene age. Rangifer tarandus is one of the species that is very well represented in the faunal assemblage from Woerden.Woerden yielded not only thousands of fossil bones but also Palaeolithic artefacts. A direct relationship between the reindeer bones and these artefacts could not be indicated. Most of the bones are complete and not a single reindeer bone or bone fragment shows traces of human interference such as clear impact or cut marks. This is remarkable considering the many European Palaeolithic sites where reindeer hunters left their traces.Detailed investigation of the reindeer remains indicates that the majority of the reindeer remains from Woerden represent one population with juvenile as well as adult individuals. The adult specimens show a female/male ratio of 2:1, which is characteristic for natural living reindeer populations. This ratio as well as the standard deviation of the size measurements suggests that the assemblage is one distinct population and not a mix of fossil assemblages with reindeer of different size and different geological ages. Further remarkable is that the dimensions of the limb bones indicate that the reindeer from Woerden were extremely slender; much more slender than the fossil Middle and Late Pleistocene reindeer assemblages from other localities in north-western and central Europe.

Subject of this monograph is the Late Neolothic site Zeewijk, that was located in a tidal environment in the northwest of the Netherlands. The analyses show that Zeewijk was a location where recurrent habitation took place, year-round and intensive, alternating with subsistence activities. It is a permanent mosaic of different assemblages: relocated dwellings, cultivated plots, a large variety of local crafts and the building and partial demolition of a remarkable ritual structure in Zeewijk-East. This points to a community of several families, with ties of kinship both genetic and affinal.

Zeewijk is an important final building block in the better understanding of Neolithic and Corded Ware Culture life in Noord-Holland that we set out to achieve in our project. Looking back at the analysis and publication of the fairly small sites at Keinsmerbrug and Mienakker, the new information added by the much larger site Zeewijk is fascinating. Because Zeewijk is very different in many respects – in terms of the backlog, size, quantity of finds and proportion excavated – its story is a valuable outcome of our Odyssey research project.
We can conclude that Zeewijk was a large domestic settlement, occupied all year round. In our view Zeewijk must be seen as a location where recurrent habitation took place, intensively, alternated with subsistence activities. It is a permanent mosaic of different assemblages: relocated dwellings, cultivated plots and the building and partial demolition of a remarkable ritual structure.
The habitants of Zeewijk carried out a broad spectrum of activities related to subsistence: mixed intensive farming (including small-scale crop cultivation, crop processing and
consumption, and animal herding and consumption), foraging, fishing, fowling and hunting all took place there. Furthermore there is ample evidence of craftsmanship.
This variety of local crafts, the construction and use of the large ceremonial building in Zeewijk-East and the large variation in ceramics are seen as indications that different groups of
Corded Ware people settled at Zeewijk. These groups were probably household groups, a community of several families, related by kinship both genetic and affinal.

Study of the animal bones from the Merovingian cemetery of Borgharen (Maastricht). Special topics are: aDNA and spectroscopic analysis of an ivory ring from a woman's grave to determine the Elephant species, a detailed  description and discussion on two horse burials, and an overview of the shells in the grave contents.

In the second century AD in Borgharen near Maastricht (Netherlands) a Roman villa rustica was situated on a gravel bed in the flood plan of the river Meuse. After the villa was abandoned and most of the building material was cleared away, in the 6th and 7th century the same spot was used as a cemetery.
The very meticulous way of excavating combined with several specialisms (for example: physical anthropology, ancient DNA and stable isotopes research, archaeozoology) has given information not only about the villa, the graveyard and the burial ritual itself, but also about the formation processes, relationship and provenance of the buried peopl. Careful study of two horse skeletons made clear that these were ritually killed by a fatal stab in the heart; et cetera.

- 2015b: R. Lauwerier, J.-W. de Kort, E. Altena, L. Kootker, R. Panhuysen & I. van der Jagt : Merovingians at Borgharen : Digging into a listed monument near Maastricht (Netherlands), in: A. Willemsen & H. Kik (eds.), Golden Middle Ages in Europe: New Research into Early-Medieval Communities and Identities, Proceedings of the Second ‘Dorestad Congress’ held at the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2-5 July, 2014, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.

Since 2007, virtually all local authorities in the Netherlands have used archaeological resource maps, predictive archaeological maps and policy maps to help them meet their responsibility for heritage management. The Cultural Heritage Agency gathered and systematically analysed the maps in use: a total of 1666 maps and 611 accompanying reports. Subsequently national overviews of each type of map were produced. The predictive archaeological maps are based on predictive modelling combined with expert judgment. It is often unclear what predictions are actually based on. It was found that, when maps are fitted together, they do not match well in terms of either form or content. Differences between maps raise questions when it comes to projects that straddle municipal boundaries. The discrepancies are associated with the almost complete lack of overall detailed guidelines for map production, differences in the predictive models used, the sources consulted, the design and conditions imposed by the authorities commissioning the maps, as well as in the financial resources available. Central government is therefore keen to encourage local authorities to ensure that their predictive maps are more compatible in the future. Further, verifying the predictive models on the basis of resources identified in new field research could help enhance archaeological heritage management. This will enhance local authorities’ ability to make informed choices in their archaeology policy.