Menne Kosian
I studied Mediterranean archaeology, classical history and logic at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In 1996 I joined the ROB (now RCE) and worked as archaeological draftsman/cartographer. Now I’m holding the position of researcher spatial analysis at the landscape department and give guest lectures in GIS and Maritime Landscape.
Phone: +31615220856
Phone: +31615220856
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Books by Menne Kosian
Een stadsgenese kan op verschillende schaalniveaus worden uitgewerkt. In deze website worden 3 schaalniveaus onderscheiden: een stad/dorp, een gebied en een wijk. Voor het stadsniveau is recentelijk een boek gepresenteerd. De inhoud ervan staat ook op deze website onder ‘stad/dorp’.
Daarnaast wordt ook uitgelegd hoe je zelf een genese kan maken.
Door de uitstekende bereikbaarheid van het waterrijke gebied kwamen de steden op. De concurrenten Schiedam, Delft en Rotterdam groeven kanalen om zichzelf de beste positie in het Hollandse handelsnetwerk te verschaffen. De steden begonnen aan een periode van ongekende groei. Stadsuitbreidingen schoven steeds verder over het oude cultuurlandschap heen. Agrarisch gebruik maakte plaats voor recreatie, cultuurgebieden werden ten slotte omgevormd tot ‘nieuwe’ natuur. De cirkel lijkt weer rond.
De Atlas van de Schie vertelt met oude én nieuwe kaarten het verhaal hoe een kanaaltje in het nog praktisch onbevolkte Holland een vaarweg werd in het sterkst verstedelijkte deel van Nederland. Al 2500 jaar werkt en sleutelt men aan landschap en infrastructuur, en dat zal men blijven doen. Het is nooit af.
- 2009a: M. de Boer, E. van As, H.J.P.M. van den Besselaar, E. Beukers, O. Brinkkemper, P.W.F. Brinkman, A. Haytsma, M.C. Kosian, R.C.G.M. Lauwerier, M.W. Schnitker, H.J.T. Weerts (eds.): Erfgoedbalans 2009. Archeologie, monumenten en cultuurlandschap in Nederland. Amersfoort: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed.
De Brettenzone komt voort uit het beroemde Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan van Amsterdam uit 1935. Dat voorzag in een groene zone tussen de Westelijke Tuinsteden en het havengebied.
Maar in de uitvoering was vooral aandacht voor woningbouw en havenuitbreiding. Ertussen bleef een versnipperd gebied over, een openluchtmuseum van half uitgevoerde plannen, een rijk maar onontdekt cultuurlandschap.
Tussen Haarlemmerpoort en Halfweg presenteert de geschiedenis van de Brettenzone in een reeks nieuw getekende kaarten met een heldere toelichting. Deze atlas laat zien hoe dit landschap zich ontwikkelde van veenmoeras tot middeleeuwse ontginning, van landgoederenzone tot stadsrand.
Met daarin de eerste trekvaart uit de Gouden Eeuw en de oudste spoorlijn van Nederland, maar ook de Westergasfabriek en Sugar City. Een stedelijk landschap waarin de natuur – voor het eerst sinds de vroege middeleeuwen – op veel plekken de overhand krijgt.
De Brettenzone zal de komende jaren door zijn ligging een sleutelrol spelen in de ontwikkeling van de Metropoolregio Amsterdam, als groene en blauwe as van de stad naar de kust. Deze atlas is daarom niet alleen van belang voor historisch geïnteresseerde lezers, maar ook voor architecten, landschapsontwerpers en stedenbouwkundigen.
Het veenmoeras aan de rand van de bewoonde wereld werd ontgonnen vanaf de elfde eeuw. Een deel van de Amstel werd gegraven om water uit het veen af te voeren. In de dertiende eeuw kwam een nieuwe macht op: Amsterdam. Het stadje bij de dam in de Amstel groeide in de Gouden Eeuw uit tot een van de grootste metropolen van Europa.
De nabijheid van de stad veroorzaakte grote veranderingen in Amstelland. Veel land veranderde door turfwinning in water en werd vervolgens drooggemaakt. Het laagliggende veen kon onder water worden gezet ter verdediging van Amsterdam. In de loop der eeuwen raakten stad en land steeds meer met elkaar vergroeid. De laatste zestig jaar zijn grote delen van Amstelland volgebouwd. Deze rijk geïllustreerde atlas laat zien dat het landelijk gebied niet te begrijpen is zonder kennis van de stad, en andersom.
The peat marsh on the edge of the world was gradually reclaimed from the 11th century onwards; a section of the Amstel even originated as a drainage canal. The Lords Van Amstel ruled the area from their stronghold in Ouderkerk, but their role was finished after the involvement of Gijsbrecht van Amstel in the murder of count of Holland Floris V in 1296. A new power arose in the 13th century: Amsterdam. The insignificant village near a dam in the Amstel was transformed into one of the largest metropolises in Europe. Its warehouses hoarded the wealth of many nations. Meanwhile, Amstelland had its own treasures: turves, cattle, and the pleasures of country life. Its farmers supplied the urban markets, its infrastructure was guaranteed by the city, comfortable country estates multiplied, and by the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age, the river Amstel had become Amsterdam's pleasure garden where urbanites whiled away their Sundays.
Into this landscape the proximity of the city introduced major changes. Much of it was transformed by underwater peat extraction, to subsequently fall dry again, thanks to urban investments. The military, too, had a lasting impact on the Amstelland landscape. Its low peat lands could be easily inundated, changing them into a virtually impenetrable barrier around Amsterdam.The Stelling van Amsterdam, constructed between 1881 and 1914, was only the last in a long series of defensive water lines. The past sixty years saw large sections of Amstelland being turned into urban zones. It was the culmination of centuries of ever more intense relations between city and countryside, making it impossible to understand the one without also studying the other.
Papers by Menne Kosian
principles
Since the late 19th century numerous Dutch geographers have made landscape
typologies of The Netherlands. In 1951 the first landscape map of The
Netherlands was published by Hendrik Keuning, depicting eleven landscape
types and seven subtypes. Additional maps were made by Bijhouwer (1971),
Visscher (1972) and the Working Group of Landscape Typology (1986).
All map legends were based on soil types on the first level and cultural
landscape characteristics on the second level. This paper describes a new
landscape map of The Netherlands that will be published in a handbook
called Landscapes of The Netherlands. Compared to former maps several
landscapes have been split up into various regional landscape types, such
as the sandy landscapes, marine clay landscapes, peat landscapes and river
landscapes. Due to new scientific insights into the decay of peat in several
regions of the Netherlands the mapping of medieval peat reclamation
landscapes is more extensive on the new map.
Een stadsgenese kan op verschillende schaalniveaus worden uitgewerkt. In deze website worden 3 schaalniveaus onderscheiden: een stad/dorp, een gebied en een wijk. Voor het stadsniveau is recentelijk een boek gepresenteerd. De inhoud ervan staat ook op deze website onder ‘stad/dorp’.
Daarnaast wordt ook uitgelegd hoe je zelf een genese kan maken.
Door de uitstekende bereikbaarheid van het waterrijke gebied kwamen de steden op. De concurrenten Schiedam, Delft en Rotterdam groeven kanalen om zichzelf de beste positie in het Hollandse handelsnetwerk te verschaffen. De steden begonnen aan een periode van ongekende groei. Stadsuitbreidingen schoven steeds verder over het oude cultuurlandschap heen. Agrarisch gebruik maakte plaats voor recreatie, cultuurgebieden werden ten slotte omgevormd tot ‘nieuwe’ natuur. De cirkel lijkt weer rond.
De Atlas van de Schie vertelt met oude én nieuwe kaarten het verhaal hoe een kanaaltje in het nog praktisch onbevolkte Holland een vaarweg werd in het sterkst verstedelijkte deel van Nederland. Al 2500 jaar werkt en sleutelt men aan landschap en infrastructuur, en dat zal men blijven doen. Het is nooit af.
- 2009a: M. de Boer, E. van As, H.J.P.M. van den Besselaar, E. Beukers, O. Brinkkemper, P.W.F. Brinkman, A. Haytsma, M.C. Kosian, R.C.G.M. Lauwerier, M.W. Schnitker, H.J.T. Weerts (eds.): Erfgoedbalans 2009. Archeologie, monumenten en cultuurlandschap in Nederland. Amersfoort: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed.
De Brettenzone komt voort uit het beroemde Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan van Amsterdam uit 1935. Dat voorzag in een groene zone tussen de Westelijke Tuinsteden en het havengebied.
Maar in de uitvoering was vooral aandacht voor woningbouw en havenuitbreiding. Ertussen bleef een versnipperd gebied over, een openluchtmuseum van half uitgevoerde plannen, een rijk maar onontdekt cultuurlandschap.
Tussen Haarlemmerpoort en Halfweg presenteert de geschiedenis van de Brettenzone in een reeks nieuw getekende kaarten met een heldere toelichting. Deze atlas laat zien hoe dit landschap zich ontwikkelde van veenmoeras tot middeleeuwse ontginning, van landgoederenzone tot stadsrand.
Met daarin de eerste trekvaart uit de Gouden Eeuw en de oudste spoorlijn van Nederland, maar ook de Westergasfabriek en Sugar City. Een stedelijk landschap waarin de natuur – voor het eerst sinds de vroege middeleeuwen – op veel plekken de overhand krijgt.
De Brettenzone zal de komende jaren door zijn ligging een sleutelrol spelen in de ontwikkeling van de Metropoolregio Amsterdam, als groene en blauwe as van de stad naar de kust. Deze atlas is daarom niet alleen van belang voor historisch geïnteresseerde lezers, maar ook voor architecten, landschapsontwerpers en stedenbouwkundigen.
Het veenmoeras aan de rand van de bewoonde wereld werd ontgonnen vanaf de elfde eeuw. Een deel van de Amstel werd gegraven om water uit het veen af te voeren. In de dertiende eeuw kwam een nieuwe macht op: Amsterdam. Het stadje bij de dam in de Amstel groeide in de Gouden Eeuw uit tot een van de grootste metropolen van Europa.
De nabijheid van de stad veroorzaakte grote veranderingen in Amstelland. Veel land veranderde door turfwinning in water en werd vervolgens drooggemaakt. Het laagliggende veen kon onder water worden gezet ter verdediging van Amsterdam. In de loop der eeuwen raakten stad en land steeds meer met elkaar vergroeid. De laatste zestig jaar zijn grote delen van Amstelland volgebouwd. Deze rijk geïllustreerde atlas laat zien dat het landelijk gebied niet te begrijpen is zonder kennis van de stad, en andersom.
The peat marsh on the edge of the world was gradually reclaimed from the 11th century onwards; a section of the Amstel even originated as a drainage canal. The Lords Van Amstel ruled the area from their stronghold in Ouderkerk, but their role was finished after the involvement of Gijsbrecht van Amstel in the murder of count of Holland Floris V in 1296. A new power arose in the 13th century: Amsterdam. The insignificant village near a dam in the Amstel was transformed into one of the largest metropolises in Europe. Its warehouses hoarded the wealth of many nations. Meanwhile, Amstelland had its own treasures: turves, cattle, and the pleasures of country life. Its farmers supplied the urban markets, its infrastructure was guaranteed by the city, comfortable country estates multiplied, and by the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age, the river Amstel had become Amsterdam's pleasure garden where urbanites whiled away their Sundays.
Into this landscape the proximity of the city introduced major changes. Much of it was transformed by underwater peat extraction, to subsequently fall dry again, thanks to urban investments. The military, too, had a lasting impact on the Amstelland landscape. Its low peat lands could be easily inundated, changing them into a virtually impenetrable barrier around Amsterdam.The Stelling van Amsterdam, constructed between 1881 and 1914, was only the last in a long series of defensive water lines. The past sixty years saw large sections of Amstelland being turned into urban zones. It was the culmination of centuries of ever more intense relations between city and countryside, making it impossible to understand the one without also studying the other.
principles
Since the late 19th century numerous Dutch geographers have made landscape
typologies of The Netherlands. In 1951 the first landscape map of The
Netherlands was published by Hendrik Keuning, depicting eleven landscape
types and seven subtypes. Additional maps were made by Bijhouwer (1971),
Visscher (1972) and the Working Group of Landscape Typology (1986).
All map legends were based on soil types on the first level and cultural
landscape characteristics on the second level. This paper describes a new
landscape map of The Netherlands that will be published in a handbook
called Landscapes of The Netherlands. Compared to former maps several
landscapes have been split up into various regional landscape types, such
as the sandy landscapes, marine clay landscapes, peat landscapes and river
landscapes. Due to new scientific insights into the decay of peat in several
regions of the Netherlands the mapping of medieval peat reclamation
landscapes is more extensive on the new map.
Jaap Evert Abrahamse & Menne Kosian
The impact of historical and archaeological research can be increased by the use of imaginative maps. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands tries to offer both adequate scientific information as well as information to a wider audience through several portals. In this contribution we will present two recent projects in which mapping was crucial: The Netherlands in 1575 and the Atlas of the Dutch Urban Landscape.
The first project, The Netherlands in 1575, reconstructs the cultural and physical landscape of the Netherlands in the period of state formation during the Dutch revolt. In order to achieve this goal the map was constructed using an almost inverse method for landscape mapping. Starting point were the city plans by Jacob van Deventer (second half of the 16th century). These were georeferenced and digitized by using the modern street GIS systems. Next, the city plans were linked using modern research into regional and long-distance route networks in the Netherlands. These routes were based on landscape features as well as historical maps. This way both the methodology of the route networks research could be verified as well as the georeferencing method of the Van Deventer maps. This new and corrected ‘skeleton’ of medieval Dutch topography was confronted with recent research into the palaeogeography of the Netherlands. From a very detailed level, the general picture of the Netherlands in 1575 could be drawn, and refined where necessary. This produced a map that not only has a strong scientific base, but aims also to be used by the general public, zooming in on their hometown.
The Atlas of the Dutch Urban Landscape (published 2016) was the result of a cooperation of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and the Delft Chair of Architectural History. This research project aimed at creating a long-term overview of urbanization and urban practice in the Netherlands, the most densely urbanized country in Europe, and subsequently looking at the results from a European perspective. Its landscape of greater and smaller, older and younger towns was formed in the course of a millennium. What were the roots of this urban landscape, and how did it develop? Between 1300 and 1700, the Netherlands developed from a peripheral region into Europe’s epicentre. Over one hundred port towns sprang up in the 13th and 14th century, mainly in the western peat and clay areas and along major rivers like the Rhine and the Meuse. When the Republic became a world power in the Dutch Golden Age, vast urban extensions materialized in towns like Rotterdam, Leiden and especially Amsterdam. A century and a half of dramatic decline followed, coinciding with the rise of England and France as the new global powers. Industrialization in the Netherlands first gathered speed after 1870. It generated unprecedented urban extensions in the old towns and an upsurge of new town formations. Industrial centres and residential towns sprang up along the new railway network. In the course of the 20th century the Dutch government developed an internationally renowned planning apparatus which in the context of the post-WWII welfare state churned out an endless series of motorways, housing estates and business parks. The Atlas of the Dutch Urban Landscape contains a comprehensive synthesis of a millennium of spatial development. Series of maps, photos and paintings clearly illustrate processes of growth, stagnation and decline of Dutch towns. It is the first national overview of urbanization and urbanism and might be a potential source of inspiration for other nations in Europe and beyond.
One of those sources is the way people described their surroundings, but most of it is not recorded contemporary. But people still ‘remember’ their old surroundings: folk lore and stories tell us a great deal on the environment people of old lived in. And in old toponyms there is a great source of (sometimes hidden) information on land-use, nature and soil type.
But how can we incorporate this intangible heritage into modern, computerised research? In this paper I will give some examples of using this ‘new’ form of basic data in a GIS.
The first layer of this map was the physical environment. While the Netherlands have the luxury to have 1:50.000 soil maps and geomorphological maps which are also aggregated to a higher landscape level, the surrounding countries do not always have such an instrument. So we had to make a new map, based on existing digital maps. This was done by expert judgement to attune existing maps to one another. Existing polygons of the digital maps were joined by reclassifying them at a higher scale level. This led to new aggregations of physical geographical landscape-units for the entire region, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France and northwestern Germany. Next necessary steps will be refining the map and adding a layer for the anthropogenic landscapes and landscape development.
In this paper we will present the first version of this map and hope to get the discussion on pan-European anthropogenic landscapes going.
to the 1990’s, is based on geomorphometrical (observable and measurable in the field), geomorphological and, lithological and geochronological criteria. When used at a national scale, the legend of this comprehensive geomorphological map is very complex which hampers use in e.g. planning practice or predictive archaeology. At the national scale several landscape classifications have been in use in the Netherlands since the early 1950’s, typically ranging in the order of 10 -15 landscape units for the entire country. A widely used regional predictive archaeological classification has 13 archaeo-landscapes. All these classifications have been defined “top-down” and their
actual content and boundaries have only been broadly defined. Thus, these classifications have little or no meaning at a local scale. We have tried to combine the local scale with the national scale. To do so, we first defined national physical geographical regions based on the new 2010 national geological map 1:500,000. We also made sure there was a reference with the European LANMAP2 classification. We arrived at 20 landscape units at the national scale, based on (1) genesis, (2) large-scale geomorphology, (3) lithology of the shallow sub-surface and (4) age. These criteria that were chosen because the genesis of the landscape largely determines its (scale of) morphology and
lithology that in turn determine hydrological conditions. All together, they define the natural boundary conditions for anthropogenic use. All units have been defined, mapped and described based on these criteria. This enables the link with the European LANMAP2 GIS. The unit “Till-plateau sand region” for instance runs deep into Germany and even Poland. At the local scale, the boundaries of the national units can be defined and precisely mapped by linking them to the 1:50,000 geomorphological map polygons. Each national unit consists of a typical assemblage of local geomorphological units. So, the newly developed natural physical landscape map layer can be used from
the local to the European scale.
Geomorphological, sedimentological, historical and historical-geographical evidence however, points towards the straight part of the Amstel, now located in Amsterdam, as a drainage canal that was dug in the aftermath of the ‘Great Reclamation’ of the 11th and 12th centuries. During this period, large parts of the wilderness in Utrecht and Holland were cultivated and put to agricultural use.
Prior to the ‘Great Reclamations’, large oligotrophic (Sphagnum) peat bogs drained by small rivers were characteristic of the entire region. All along the straight Amstel canal, Sphagnum peat is found, which is indicative of the area’s former peat bog conditions. The ‘Amstel Canal’ connected two natural meandering watercourses, one at the north and one at the south of the canal. The soil along both watercourses exists of eutrophic peat, which is
indicative of repeated natural flooding. This is a strong indication of the anthropogenous origin of the straight part of the Amstel.
The reason for digging the Amstel canal was not to create better trade links; it was a local component of a solution for major regional drainage problems in the provinces of Utrecht and Holland. These problems arose from the silting up of the Rhine rivermouth around 1100AD. Because of this, the precipitation surplus of the entire region could not be drained to the North Sea by this route anymore. This led to increased flooding and
subsequently to conflicts between the rulers of Holland and Utrecht. In 1165AD, these conflicts reached a point where the Holy Roman Emperor intervened. The ruling of Barbarossa eventually led to a compromise: Utrecht and Holland redirected the entire drainage system of the region from the North Sea to the Zuiderzee in a concerted effort. This operation consisted of the digging of many canals and the construction of several sluice complexes.
This shift from natural to man-made drainage systems was unprecedented at this scale in North-Western Europe.
An unlooked-for consequence of the digging the Amstel canal and many other drainage canals during and after the Great Reclamations was the layout of a network of infrastructure that later enabled the rise of cities in Holland.
The location of Dorestad on a high natural levee along a relatively stable navigable branch of the Rhine in the central Rhine delta was perfect for trade. The high levee gave protection from the annual river floods. Although this branch of the Rhine was fairly stable in the heydays of Dorestad, the meanders near Dorestad slowly migrated.
Excavations at Dorestad show that the harbour works of Dorestad were constantly adapted to this migration, thereby following the meander on which they were located. Ships could reach the port from the sea through at least three navigable Rhine branches: the Lek, the Old Rhine and the Vecht rivers. Dorestad was thus easily accessible and yet far enough from the coast to be safe from storm floods – but was it located at its specific location for these
reasons alone?
We combined existing geomorphological and geological maps with recent nation-wide laser-altimetry (AHN, General Elevation model of the Netherlands’) for a regional palaeogeographical reconstruction of 9th-century active Rhine branches in a GIS. This reconstruction revealed that river connections with the Flemish, French and German hinterland were perfect. Other delta branches ensured safe connections to the Zeeland delta and the open
Flemish coast, all the way to Dover Straight to the south and to the open Frisian coast all the way to present Southern Denmark in the North. The dangerously closed coast of Holland without any safe shelter places for storms could thus be avoided by ships coming in both from the South and from the North.
This interdisciplinary approach not only gave insight in the changing river activity, but also in the reasons why Dorestad could rise to its glory, and the possible reason for its demise as important Rhine branches silted up, while new branches developed into navigable waterways. The demise of Dorestad gave room for later river towns such as Tiel, Dordrecht and the cities along the IJssel.
From Friesland to Limburg, and from Groningen to Zeeland, dozens of towns were built during the Middle Ages, most of them along rivers and main waterways. When the Dutch Republic became a world power in the Dutch Golden Age, large extensions were realized in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Leiden. After a period of economic recession in the 18th century, the industrialisation caused some of these cities to prosper again from 1850 onwards. This not only led to a rapid growth of existing cities, but also to the emergence of new cities. Industrial centres like Tilburg and Hengelo and residential towns like Apeldoorn and Hilversum sprang up along the newly developed railways. Built under state control, new cities like Almere, Emmen and Zoetermeer emerged in the 20th century. In the post-war welfare state motorways, residential areas and industrial estates were laid out over the country at unprecedented speed. The Atlas of Urbanization in the Netherlands provides the first national overview of 1000 years of urban development. Its basis lies in an analysis of the 35 largest cities in the present-day Netherlands. By means of photographs, paintings and newly developed maps the growth and shrinkage of the Dutch cities is shown.
The first layer of this map was the physical environment. While the Netherlands have the luxury to have 1:50.000 soil maps and geomorphological maps which are also aggregated to a higher landscape level, the surrounding countries do not always have such an instrument. So we had to make a new map, based on existing digital maps. This was done by expert judgement to attune existing maps to one another. Existing polygons of the digital maps were joined by reclassifying them at a higher scale level. This led to new aggregations of physical geographical landscape-units for the entire region, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France and north-western Germany.
For this European scale the Alterra LANMAP2 mapping was used as a basis. LANMAP2 had as an added bonus that this map also has information on land use and climate. This way a multi-disciplinary approach was possible. More landscape characterization issues could be added to this map.
The Cultural Heritage Agency is now working on developing a Landscape Characterization Framework GIS and an Landscape Archaeological GIS based on this north western European base map. This allows us to not only use landscape (archaeological) features on a national scale, but also to compare and cooperate with our direct neighbours in Europe… Moreover, the multi-disciplinary database behind this map also allows palaeo-geographic and palaeo-botanic reconstructions not restricted by modern national borders to be developed.
This poster presentation will give a few preliminary results of this new landscape maps.
Because national spatial policies are more and more related to international developments, the agency was asked to make a map of the dierent Dutch landscapes in a north-western European perspective.
The first layer of this map was the physical environment. While the Netherlands have the luxury to have 1:50.000 soil maps and geomorphological maps which are also aggregated to a higher landscape level, the surrounding countries do not always have such an instrument.
So we had to make a new map, based on new and existing digital maps. This was done by expert judgement to attune existing maps to one another. Existing polygons of the digital maps were joined by reclassifying them at a higher scale level. This led to new aggregations of physical geographical landscape-units for the entire region, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France and north-western Germany.
With this new GIS dataset it was possible to extend this map to the historical landscape. Again, the Netherlands have the luxury to have a new palaeo-geographical atlas of the changes of the Dutch physical geography during the Holocene era. Combining these data with the new north-western European landscape GIS gave a rst historical layer on this map.
As a first period for the wider palaeo-geography the Roman era was chosen. For this map not only (palaeo-)geographical data was used, but also climatological data, new archaeological insights and bio-environmental data.
This multi-disciplinary approach makes it possible to map the natural boundary conditions for anthropogenic land use and development. The European scope of the map helps to see the broader historical context.
From Friesland to Limburg, and from Groningen to Zeeland, dozens of towns were built during the Middle Ages, most of them along rivers and main waterways. When the Dutch Republic became a world power in the Dutch Golden Age, large extensions were realized in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Leiden. After a period of economic recession in the 18th century, the industrialisation caused some of these cities to prosper again from 1850 onwards. This not only led to a rapid growth of existing cities, but also to the emergence of new cities. Industrial centres like Tilburg and Hengelo and residential towns like Apeldoorn and Hilversum sprang up along the newly developed railways. Built under state control new cities emerged in the 20th century, like Almere, Emmen and Zoetermeer. The post-war welfare state meant that motorways, residential areas and industrial estates were rolled out at high speed over the country.
The study of urban history is fragmented in different disciplines and local in character. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and the Delft Faculty of Architecture have created an overview on the basis of scattered research. This atlas provides an overview of a millennium of urban development for the first time. By means of photographs, paintings and newly developed maps the growth and shrinkage of the Dutch cities is shown. Current topics are discussed, like re-use, redevelopment and the transformations of inner cities and urban fringes. This is the first national long-term overview of urbanization and urban practice in Europe. In our presentation, we will highlight the emergence and development of the urban pattern and the morphology of the Dutch cityscape in the period from the Middle Ages and the early modern period.
Maar er is meer te vertellen over dit gebied. De grote Zuiderzee is namelijk nog helemaal niet zo oud.
De nederzetting groeide uit tot een stedelijk handelscentrum met uitgebreide havenwerken en opslagplaatsen, maar ook met werkplaatsen voor allerhande lokale productie. Daarnaast bleven er agrarische erven en boerderijen.
De vroege Middeleeuwen waren een tijd waarin de rivieren in Nederland grote veranderingen ondergingen. De hoofdwaterafvoer van de Rijn verlegde zich langzaam naar het zuiden, naar de Waal, nieuwe rivieren als de Lek, de Hollandse IJssel en later de IJssel vormden zich en trokken meer en meer water uit de oude hoofdtak van de Rijn. Uiteindelijk begon de Rijn bij Katwijk zelfs sterk te verzanden. Daarnaast kenmerkte de periode zich ook door enkele zeer grote overstromingen. De combinatie van deze verwoestende natuurrampen en het verdwijnen van de Rijn als belangrijke handels- en vaarroute leidden uiteindelijk tot het ophouden van Dorestad als handelscentrum.
Deze lezing geeft en overzicht van de groei, bloei en het uiteindelijke einde van Dorestad, waarbij de nieuwste inzichten in rivierdynamiek en geomorfogenese zijn meegenomen.
De ruimtelijke dynamiek van stadsrandzones
In mei 2014 verscheen de Atlas van de verstedelijking in Nederland. 1000 jaar ruimtelijke ontwikkeling. Dit boek is het eindproduct van een langjarig onderzoeksproject van de Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed en de Technische Universiteit Delft. Het bevat een overzicht van duizend jaar stedenbouw in Nederland. De aard en de inrichting van stadsrandzones is een van de onderwerpen in de atlas.
In het traditionele beeld is het karakter van de stadsrand sterk veranderd: middeleeuwse en vroegmoderne steden zouden een strakke begrenzing hebben gehad, waarbij het contrast tussen stad en platteland zeer sterk was. Na de sloop van de stedelijke fortificaties in de 19de eeuw brak een periode aan van ongebreidelde stedelijke groei, waarbij de grens tussen stad en platteland vervaagde en steden zich als een olievlek uitspreidden over het landschap. Toen kwam de planning op, die een einde maakte aan de ordeloze ontwikkeling van stadsranden.
Dit beeld is gecreëerd onder invloed van de moderne stedenbouwkunde, waarbinnen het idee leefde dat het contrast tussen het stedelijke en rurale landschap moest worden verscherpt – en dat deze overgang maakbaar was. Men dacht te kunnen ontsnappen aan de logica waarin stad, periferie en platteland in elkaar overlopen. De stadsrand werd nu een ontwerpprobleem.
In onze bijdrage zullen wij kanttekeningen plaatsen bij dit idee. Uit recent onderzoek blijkt dat er ondanks de geplande grens rond historische steden een graduele overgangszone was tussen stad en platteland: de stedelijke periferie, waarin kleinschalige, op de stad gerichte functies hun plaats konden vinden, ook omdat de bereikbaarheid goed was, grondprijzen lager waren dan in de steden en stedelijke regelgeving minder streng of niet werd nageleefd en gehandhaafd, voorzover die überhaupt geldig was. In dit beeld is de periferie een broedplaats voor economische vitaliteit. Daarbij worden functies die in de steden niet te handhaven waren (zoals vervuilende en brandgevaarlijke bedrijvigheid of de behandeling van lijders aan besmettelijke ziekten) gecombineerd met functies die typisch waren voor de periferie, zoals tuinbouw of infrastructuur. De overloop uit de stad werd gecombineerd met een stedelijk platteland.
In onze bijdrage zullen we aan de hand van de onderzoeksresultaten uit de Atlas van de verstedelijking laten zien dat de continuïteit in de ontwikkeling van stadsranden groter is dan gedacht, omdat de ontwikkeling van de periferie inherent is aan die van de stad en omdat de mechanismen en functies die de ruimtelijke dynamiek ervan bepalen niet wezenlijk zijn veranderd.
1 Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Amersfoort.
In this lecture we will give an example of a method developed at the Cultural Heritage Agency in the Netherlands of integrating historical city maps with modern cartographic techniques. As a main research area, we will focus on the city of Amsterdam within its seventeenth-century borders. We have developed a specific GIS with which the growth and development of the city over time can be visualized and combined with external (archival) data.
These maps not only give an insight on Dorestads direct surroundings, but also on the reason why Dorestad could flourish as a European emporium. The location of Dorestad on a high natural levee along a not so active branch of the Rhine in the central Rhine delta was perfect for trade. It was far enough from the coast to be safe from storm floods. The high levee also gave protection from the annual river floods. River connections with the Flemish, French and German hinterland were perfect. Other delta branches ensured safe connections to the Zeeland delta and the open Flemish coast all the way to Dover Straight to the south and to the open Frisian coast all the way to present Southern Denmark in the North. The dangerously closed coast of Holland without any safe shelter places for storms could thus be avoided by ships coming in both from the South and from the North.
Later changes in the river system also lead to the demise of Dorestad as an central emporium. The silting-up of the Rhine river to the west and the opening of the IJssel river in the east, made that the city lost its prime economic function.
Maar de Waddenzee is ook door mensen gebruikt. En dat laat sporen na. Sporen van waaruit je zelfs grote gebeurtenissen uit de wereldgeschiedenis kan aflezen. De Amerikaanse revolutie, de opkomst van Napoleon, allemaal terug te vinden in he verhaal van de Waddenzee. De Waddenzee is niet alleen door mensen gebruikt, maar ook gevormd. Het is ook een dynamisch Cultuur Landschap.
Om dit culturele aspect te beschermen, en moeten we weten waar we wat kunnen verwachten. Binnen de dijken kennen we verschillende soorten verwachtings- en waarderingskaarten. Maar waar kunnen we erfgoed verwachten buiten de dijken? Dat landschap is zo dynamisch. Daar is niet Eén Kaart van te maken.
Binnen de RCE is nu een systematiek ontwikkeld die de dynamiek van dit zeelandschap recht doet, en een nieuwe manier van zoeken naar mogelijk erfgoed.
In an internationally oriented city as Amsterdam, just freed from Spanish rule, people started to reinvent their lives. Not only were they looking at Italian, classical examples for to build their new society and urban environment, the most striking was the change in manners.
Although the Dutch protestant mores were of simplicity and austerity, the Amsterdam merchant elite were living a life of luxury. We know for instance from the Amsterdam’s archives that Petronian banquets were taking place, which led to the general prohibition such feasts in Amsterdam. The ideas of how to live the life didn’t come from these parts: they were imported from Italy. Antwerp and Amsterdam book printers translated and published many Italian renaissance works. These were not only works on politics and warfare, but also on cookery and table manners. Several Italian renaissance cooks became famous through translations of their work.
The result of this is best visible in the way Amsterdam merchants ate, and how it differed from their fellow countrymen. In this paper I like to give some examples of how Italian renaissance became a part of Amsterdam culture and (table)manners.
We developed a network-friction model (NFM) which combines data on past environments with archaeological data in order to model historical-route networks. Network friction is the variable that determines potential regional accessibility based on the comparison of local and surrounding landscape factors (Van Lanen et al. submitted).