Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T21:22:12.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Early Iron Age Farmstead: Site Q of the Assendelver Polders Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

L. L. Therkorn ,
R. W. Brandt ,
J. P. Pals  and
M. Taylor
L. L. Therkorn
Affiliation:
A. E. van Giffen Instituut voor Prae- en Protohistorie, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
R. W. Brandt
Affiliation:
A. E. van Giffen Instituut voor Prae- en Protohistorie, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
J. P. Pals
Affiliation:
A. E. van Giffen Instituut voor Prae- en Protohistorie, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
M. Taylor
Affiliation:
Fenland Archaeological Associates, Sycamore Farm, Seadyke Bank, Wisbech St Mary, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Assendelver Polders, 20 km west-north-west of Amsterdam (fig. 1), consist of some 2000 ha of typically flat Dutch polder landscape, treeless and cut by hundreds of drainage ditches, primarily in use for grazing. Observations by amateur archaeologists and a few small excavations have shown that the area was relatively densely populated during the period 2150 bp to 1750 bp. There were also indications for occupation around 2500 bp. The site discussed in this paper dates to this earlier period, the Early Iron Age. Until recently, circumstances were good for the preservation of organic remains owing to the high water table of the peat which covers large parts of the polders. Wooden posts, representing structural elements, were regularly retrieved by amateurs, as well as occasional lengths of wattle-work. These favourable conditions were, however, brought to an end in connexion with changes in the allotment scheme, implemented between 1970 and 1978. The organic remains became acutely threatened by desiccation due to the lowering of the water table by c. 1 m. Because of this, the Albert Egges van Giffen Institute for Pre- and Protohistory, of the University of Amsterdam, initiated the Assendelver Polders Project. Fieldwork took place in the polders during the summer months of 1978–82.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , December 1984 , pp. 351 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beug, H.-J., 1961. Leitfaden der Pollenbestimmung. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Brandt, R. W., 1983. ‘A short-lived relationship along the norther Frontier’, in Brandt, R. W. and Slofstra, J. (eds), Roman and Native in the Low Countries spheres of Interaction. BAR International Series 184.Google Scholar
Brandt, R. W., Groenman-van Waateringe, W., and van der Leeuw, S. E., (eds). Forthcoming. The Assendelver Polders Papers 1.Google Scholar
Coles, J. M. (ed.), 1983. Somerset Levels Papers No. 9 (Exeter and Cambridge).Google Scholar
Erdtman, G., Praglowski, J. and Nilsson, S., 1963. An introduction to a Scandinavian pollen flora 2. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Faegri, K. and Iversen, J., 1975. Textbook of pollen analysis, 3rd edn. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Giffen, A. E. van, 1936. ‘Der Warf in Ezinge, Provinz Groningen, Holland, und seine westgermanischen Häuser’, Germania 20, 40–47.Google Scholar
Haarnagel, W., 1979. Die Grabung Feddersen Wierde. Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Hillman, G. 1981. ‘Reconstructing crop husbandry practices from charred remains of crops’, in Mercer, R. (ed), Farming practice in British prehistory 123–62. Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Hulst, R. S., 1973. ‘A contribution to the study of Bronze Age and Iron Age house plans: Zijderveld’, Berichten van de Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek 23, 103–07.Google Scholar
Jelgersma, S., de Jong, J., Zagwijn, W. H., and van Regteren Altena, J. F. (eds), 1970. ‘The coastal Dunes of Western Netherlands; Geology, Vegetational History and Archaeology’, Mededelingen Rijks Geologische Dienst, Nieuwe Serie 21, 93–167.Google Scholar
Jones, M., 1978. ‘The plant remains’, in Parrington, M., The Excavation of an Iron Age settlement, Bronze Age ring-ditches and Roman features at Ashville Trading Estate, Abingdon (Oxfordshire) 1974–76, CBA Research Report 28, 93–110.Google Scholar
Körber-Grohne, U., 1967. Geobotanische Untersuchungen auf der Feddersen Wierde. Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Loudon, J. C. 1829. An encyclopaedia of plants. London.Google Scholar
Morel, J. and de Weerd, M. D., 1980. ‘Early Roman harbours in Velsen’, in Hanson, W. S. and Keppie, L.J.F. (eds) Roman Frontier Studies. BAR International Series 71. 475–94.Google Scholar
Neuweiler, E., 1905. ‘Die prähistorische Pflanzenreste Mitteleuropas’, Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturf. Gesellsch. Zürich 50, 23–132.Google Scholar
O'Riordain, S. P. and Hartnett, P. J., 1943. ‘The excavation of Ballycatteen Fort, Co. Cork’, Proc. Royal Irish Academy 49C, 1–43.Google Scholar
Pals, J. P. Forthcoming. ‘Assendelver Polders: environment and economy as revealed by macroscopic plant remains’, in Brandt, R. W., Groenman-van Waateringe, W. and van der Leeuw, S. E. (eds), The Assendelver Polders Papers 1.Google Scholar
Rapoport, A., 1969. House Form and Culture. (Foundations of cultural Geography Series). New Jersey.Google Scholar
Reichgelt, T. J., 1956. ‘Cyperaceae’, Flora Neerlandica 1, 4. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Stichting Historisch Boerderij-onderzoek, Arnhem, 1973. De benaming van houtverbindingen en constructieve houten elementen bij oude boerderijen.Google Scholar
Tuan, Yi-Fu, 1977. Space and Place: the perspective of experience. London.Google Scholar
Trier, B., 1969. Das Haus im Nordwesten der Germania Libera. Veroffentl. Altertums komm. Provinzialinst. Wastfalische Landes- und Volkskunde 4.Google Scholar
Waals, J. D. van der, 1964. Prehistoric Disc Wheels in the Netherlands. Groningen.Google Scholar
Waterbolk, H. T., 1975. ‘Evidence of cattle stalling in excavated pre- and protohistoric houses’, in Clason, A. T. (ed), Archaeozoological Studies, 383–94. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Westhoff, V., 1949. Landschap, flora en vegetatie van de Botshol nabij Abcoude. Baambrugge.Google Scholar
Westhoff, V., Bakker, P. A., van Leeuwen, C. G., van der Voo, E. E., and Zonneveld, I. S., 1973. Wilde Planten. Vols I£III. Vereniging tot behoud van natuurmonumenten in Nederland.Google Scholar
Willerding, U., 1970. ‘Vor- und frühgeschichtliche Kulturpflanzenfunde in Mitteleuropa’, Neue Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in Niedersachsen 5, 287–375.Google Scholar
IJzereef, G., 1981. ‘Bronze Age Animal Bones from Bovenkarspel: the excavation at Het Valkje’, Nederlandse Oudheden 10 (project Noord-Holland 1). Amersfoort.Google Scholar
Zeist, W. van, 1970. ‘Prehistoric and early historic food plants in the Netherlands’, Palaeohistoria 14, 41–173.Google Scholar
Zeist, W. van, 1974. ‘Palaeobotanical studies on settlement sites in the coastal area of the Netherlands’, Palaeohistoria 16, 223–371.Google Scholar