'Cyprus: A Dynamic Island' at the National Museum of Antiquities of the Netherlands

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 20, 2019 / comment : 0 Cyprus, Exhibitions, Netherlands, Travel

On 11 October 2019, the exhibition Cyprus: A Dynamic Island opened at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden (RMO, the National Museum of Antiquities of the Netherlands). This is a unique exhibition about one of the most important crossroads of ancient cultures in the Mediterranean region. It features a selection of 400 superb archaeological objects, more than 300 of which come from Cyprus’s national collections. They represent over 9,000 years of the island’s history, in an impressive setting of huge artistic landscape photographs. The exhibits include life-sized sculptures and portraits in marble and terracotta, imaginative pottery decorated with little faces and animal figures, luxury imported goods from the Near East and Egypt, large bronze cauldrons and weapons, colourful mosaics, gold jewellery and a royal throne inlaid with silver display, highlighting both the diversity and the uniqueness of the island’s culture. This is the first major exhibition on the archaeology of Cyprus to be shown in the Netherlands. Cyprus: A Dynamic Island will be on view until 15 March 2020, including Mondays.

Cyprus is associated with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love who was born ‘from the silver foam of the sea’ near the Cypriot coast. Thanks to its strategic location, the island has been at the centre of contacts and trade between different cultures in the eastern and western Mediterranean for thousands of years. That constant dynamic movement of people, goods and ideas between Cyprus and the surrounding cultures, and the merging of cultural influences are the key emphases in the exhibition. Sea, landscape and the natural beauty of Cyprus features prominently: metres-high artistic photographs of the natural scenery and subtly-moving projections provide the decor for the exhibition’s story. Visitor will experience the exhibition as a relaxed stroll through a serene landscape, passing highlights of Cypriot culture. A second storyline, that of remarkable historical figures and archaeological excavations on Cyprus since the early 19th century, also focuses on illegal digs and trade in antiquities, a subject that remains high on the Cypriot agenda.

Never before has Cyprus lent so many archaeological objects at once to a foreign museum. Loans have been provided by Department of Antiquities in Cyprus from the Cyprus Museum (Nicosia) and diverse other national, regional, and private Cypriot museums. A life-size terracotta grave statue from the famous sanctuary of Ayia Irini will be provided on loan to the RMO by the Swedish National Museums of World Culture. Princessehof Ceramics Museum in Leeuwarden and the Kunstmuseum The Hague contributed ceramic work by Pablo Picasso, who clearly drew inspiration from archaeological pottery. From Museum Voorlinden the RMO was able to obtain the loan of a present-day Venus (‘Venus Bleue’ by Yves Klein). Other objects come from the RMO’s own collection and from the Allard Pierson in Amsterdam.


The exhibition is accompanied by audio guides (Dutch/English), a book for the general public (150 pp., Dutch/English), series of lectures by Dutch and international experts, guided tours (also for families), workshops, and an afternoon seminar organised in conjunction with Leiden University. There will also be a special audio guide for children and special children’s activities in the school holidays.

The exhibition Cyprus: A Dynamic Island and the accompanying book were prepared in close partnership with the Department of Antiquities in Cyprus (Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works) and the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia, and with the support of the A.G. Leventis Foundation; the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in the Netherlands; Cyprus Ministry of Tourism; Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus; the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund; Labrys Reizen; the Cultural Heritage Agency (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science); and the Society of Corporate Friends of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is supported by the BankGiro Lottery.

Source: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden [September 20, 2019]

Livestock transport could signify close ties between humans and animals in the Bronze Age

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on September 07, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Netherlands, Northern Europe

Livestock was already transported over long distances in the Bronze Age Netherlands. That is what researchers from Leiden University and VU Amsterdam have discovered.

Depiction of a cattle burial in Bovenkarspel in West-Friesland [Credit: Leiden University]

The researchers made their discovery after studying the teeth of 58 sheep/goats and cattle from the region of West-Friesland in the province of Noord-Holland. They concluded that at least three of the animals had not been born in that area. That means that there was a long-distance livestock trade in the period between 2000 and 800 BC.

Long-distance trade

"This was a very surprising conclusion," says archaeologist Nathalie Brusgaard, one of the researchers from Leiden University—the other was Professor Harry Fokkens—who was involved in the study. "West-Friesland was very densely populated in that period, which made it very easy to get your hands on a bull stud, for instance, if you needed one. So why livestock was traded over such long distances?"

Brusgaard believes that "something else" is at play, but what that was is anybody's guess. What is clear, however, is that livestock played a more important role than it does nowadays. Burial mounds found in West-Friesland contain cattle bones in earthenware pots, for instance. Brusgaard: "Whereas you'd be more likely to expect a person to be buried with such ceremony."

Strontium isotopes

The researchers studied what are known as strontium isotopes in the teeth of sheep/goats (they could not distinguish between the two) and cattle. The animals ingested the element strontium through their food and it has been stored in their teeth ever since, where it forms a kind of fingerprint of their original environment. This enabled the researchers to conclude that at least three of the animals were not born in the claylike peat soil of North-Holland. Where they did come from is not fully clear, but it was not from within a radius of 50 km. Wieringen, Texel, Twente and Fries-Drents Plateau are among the possibilities.

What could have been the reason for this long-distance trade? Brusgaard and her colleagues suspect that cattle might have played an important role in creating and maintaining social links, at weddings for instance. "Anthropological research has shown that this is still the case in different East-African societies," says Brusgaard. "The Nuer and Dinka are examples of such cattle complex societies, where humans and animals are closely linked. Cattle are roughly equal to people there."

Brusgaard and her colleagues found the 58 teeth in the depots of Noord-Holland archives. The region of West-Friesland is an ideal research location because the mixture of clay and peat helps preserve houses, stables and animal bones too.

The study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Author: Merijn Van Nuland | Source: Leiden University [September 07, 2019]

Inscribed Roman road marker found in the Netherlands

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on July 22, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Netherlands, Western Europe

Excavations carried out in preparation for work on the Rijnland Route motorway have yielded more treasure in the shape of a wooden pole bearing the Roman inscription COH II CR, Zuid Holland provincial council said at the weekend.

Credit: Zuid Holland Provincial Council

In September last year a 125 metre stretch of Roman road was uncovered and since then archaeologists have extracted 470 wooden poles, none of which were similarly marked.

The excavation site is part of the Roman Limes which is the ancient northern border of the Roman Empire and which has been nominated to become a UNESCO world heritage site in 2021.

The inscription, which dates from around 125 AD, is short for Cohors II Civium Romanorum, and refers to a group of 500 soldiers recruited from Roman civilian ranks who were specialised in carrying out and overseeing building work.

Curator Jasper de Bruin of the RMO archaeological museum in Leiden called the find "unique for the Netherlands".


"We did not know whether the Roman road was built by soldiers, civilians or perhaps slaves. Now we can conclude that 2,000 years ago the second cohort of Roman civilians built the Roman road near Valkenburg, from which the present-day Rijnland Route takes its course."

Inspection of the wooden poles show the systematic way the builders went about their work. Trees of the same width and length were used from purpose-grown woods and ordered and delivered to the building site as a kind of Roman DIY flat pack. They were then driven into the ground with a pile driver.

The construction of the Roman road was carried out with military precision and was without precedent in the Low Countries, De Bruin said.

Although the inscription sheds some light on the history of the construction some questions remain unanswered. Exactly what the second cohort did and if other cohorts were involved in the building work as well will be looked at as the research continues, the results of which are expected in 2020.

Author: Hanneke Sanou | Source: DutchNews [July 22, 2019]

Amputated limbs unearthed at Battle of Waterloo field hospital site

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on July 17, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Netherlands, Western Europe

Human leg bones have been unearthed in the first excavation of the main allied field hospital used in the 1815 Battle of Waterloo.

Four human bones have been unearthed on the dig so far  [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Experts believe they are the remains of limbs amputated by medics at the former Mont-St-Jean field hospital in Belgium.

Archaeologists and veterans also found musket balls and a cannon ball, which shed new light on the famous battle.

Archaeologists believe surgeons at the field hospital amputated the limbs  in an effort to save soldiers' lives [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Tens of thousands died in the battle, which saw the French army defeated by the allied British and Prussian troops.

Waterloo Uncovered - the charity organising the dig - said the discovery of at least four leg bones had changed the atmosphere of the excavation.

The cannon ball was French in origin [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Artillery shells have provided evidence of a possible unrecorded battle  at the gates of the field hospital [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

"Suddenly there is a very poignant connection with the people who suffered here in 1815," it said in a statement.

One of the limbs had suffered from a "catastrophic wound", while another bore the mark of a surgeon's saw. The bones are now set to undergo further examination.

The Mont-St-Jean field hospital was located about 600m (2,000ft) behind the main allied line  [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Dozens of musket balls were found [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

"We'd like to think the men survived, but we don't know," team member Mike Greenwood told the BBC, adding that the bones provided direct evidence of the work surgeons were doing to save lives during the battle.

Archaeologists said musket balls they discovered from both sides at the site indicated that there had been a previously unrecorded fight at the doors of the field hospital.

Amputated limbs unearthed at Battle of Waterloo field hospital site

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on July 17, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Netherlands, Western Europe

Human leg bones have been unearthed in the first excavation of the main allied field hospital used in the 1815 Battle of Waterloo.

Four human bones have been unearthed on the dig so far  [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Experts believe they are the remains of limbs amputated by medics at the former Mont-St-Jean field hospital in Belgium.

Archaeologists and veterans also found musket balls and a cannon ball, which shed new light on the famous battle.

Archaeologists believe surgeons at the field hospital amputated the limbs  in an effort to save soldiers' lives [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Tens of thousands died in the battle, which saw the French army defeated by the allied British and Prussian troops.

Waterloo Uncovered - the charity organising the dig - said the discovery of at least four leg bones had changed the atmosphere of the excavation.

The cannon ball was French in origin [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Artillery shells have provided evidence of a possible unrecorded battle  at the gates of the field hospital [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

"Suddenly there is a very poignant connection with the people who suffered here in 1815," it said in a statement.

One of the limbs had suffered from a "catastrophic wound", while another bore the mark of a surgeon's saw. The bones are now set to undergo further examination.

The Mont-St-Jean field hospital was located about 600m (2,000ft) behind the main allied line  [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

Dozens of musket balls were found [Credit: Waterloo Uncovered]

"We'd like to think the men survived, but we don't know," team member Mike Greenwood told the BBC, adding that the bones provided direct evidence of the work surgeons were doing to save lives during the battle.

Archaeologists said musket balls they discovered from both sides at the site indicated that there had been a previously unrecorded fight at the doors of the field hospital.

Dutch container search reveals sixteenth century wreck

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on April 03, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Netherlands, Northern Europe, Underwater Archaeology

Dutch maritime investigators searching for missing containers washed overboard during a North Sea storm have accidentally stumbled on a 16th-century shipwreck, the oldest such a find to date, officials revealed on Wednesday.

Wooden beam from the shipwreck [Credit: AFP/Koen van Weel]

The ancient wreck was discovered during a search for missing containers from the Panama-registered MSC Zoe, which lost almost 350 containers while battling a heavy storm in early January.

Tonnes of debris littered beaches on the Frisian islands, an archipelago off the northern Dutch coast, after the mishap.

The wreck was of a ship built around 1540 that had been carrying a load of copper plates [Credit: AFP/Koen van Weel]

But while scouring a busy shipping lane for the missing containers, salvage crews found copper plates and wooden beams from a vessel with a smooth hull approximately 30 metres (98 feet long).

"It's the oldest sea-going ship ever found in Dutch waters," the country's science and culture ministry said in a statement.

The wreckage was brought to the surface and the ship's cargo of copper plates laid out [Credit: Cultural Heritage Agency, Netherlands]

"An immediate archaeological survey was started and researchers determined the wood dated from 1536," the Hague-based ministry said.

It added that the ship was built around 1540 during the reign of Charles V and had been carrying a load of copper plates dated from around the same period.

Copper plates found on a 16th century Dutch shipwreck [Credit: Cultural Heritage Agency, Netherlands)

"It is especially interesting that the copper plates carry the emblem of the Fugger family," the ministry added.

Based in Augsburg in Germany, the Fugger family amassed a massive fortune as bankers and merchants and among other things held a monopoly over copper production.


Dutch Education, Culture and Science Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven called the find "spectacular and a real enrichment of Dutch cultural heritage."

"This is indeed a silver lining to a dark cloud. I'm curious to see what else will surface," Van Engelshoven added.

Source: AFP [April 03, 2019]

Gun that Van Gogh killed himself with goes up for auction

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on April 02, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Heritage, Netherlands, Western Europe

The revolver with which Vincent Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself is to go under the hammer, a Paris auction house said Tuesday.

'Portrait de l'Artiste’, Autumn 1887, a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh, at the exhibition ‘Van Gogh/ Artaud The Man Suicided by Society’, Musee d'Orsay, Paris March 10, 2014 [Credit: Reuters]

Discovered by a farmer in 1965 in the same field where the troubled Dutch painter is thought to have fatally wounded himself 75 years before, the gun has already been exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Billed by Auction Art as "the most famous weapon in the history of art", the 7 mm Lefaucheux revolver is expected to go for up to 60,000 euros ($67,000) when it is sold on June 19.

Van Gogh experts believe that he shot himself with the revolver near the village of Auvers-sur-Oise north of Paris, where he spent the last few months of his life in 1890.

The Dutch artist had borrowed the gun from the owner of the inn where he was staying. He died 36 hours later after staggering wounded back to the inn in the dark.

It was not his first dramatic act of self-harm. Two years earlier in 1888, he cut off his ear before offering it to a woman in a brothel in Arles in the south of France.

While most art historians agree that Van Gogh killed himself, that assumption has been questioned in recent years, with some researchers claiming that the fatal shot may have been fired accidentally by two local boys playing with the weapon in the field.

The revolver which the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh supposedly used to kill himself is displayed as part of the exhibition 'On the Verge of Insanity: Van Gogh and his Illness' at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2016 [Credit: Robin van Lonkhuijsen/EPA]

That theory got fresh support from a new biopic of the artist starring Willem Dafoe, "At Eternity's Gate".

Its director, the renowned American painter Julian Schnabel, told AFP that Van Gogh had painted 75 canvasses in his 80 days at Auvers-sur-Oise and was unlikely to be suicidal.

The legendary French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere -- who co-wrote the script with Schnabel -- insisted that there "is absolutely no proof he killed himself.

"Do I believe that Van Gogh killed himself? Absolutely not!" he declared when the film was premiered at the Venice film festival in September.

He said Van Gogh painted some of his best work in his final days, including his "Portrait of Dr Gachet", the local doctor who later tried to save his life.

It set a world record when it sold for $82.5 million in 1990.

The bullet Dr Gachet extracted from Van Gogh's chest was the same calibre as the one used by the Lefaucheux revolver.

The revolver Vincent Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself with was found in a field by farmer in 1965, 75 years after the painter's death [Credit: AFP/Bart Maat]

"Van Gogh was working constantly. Every day he made a new work. He was not at all sad," Carriere argued.

In the film the gun goes off after the two young boys, who were brothers, got into a struggle with the bohemian stranger.

Auction Art said that the farmer who found the gun in 1965 gave it to the owners of the inn at Auvers-sur-Oise, whose family are now selling it.

"Technical tests on the weapon have shown the weapon was used and indicate that it stayed in the ground for a period that would coincide with 1890," it said.

"All these clues give credence to the theory that this is the weapon used in the suicide."

That did not exclude, the auction house added, that the gun could not also have been hidden or abandoned by the two young brothers in the field.

Author: Fiachra Gibbons & Jean-François Guyot | Source: AFP [April 02, 2019]

1559 'Golden Fleece' pendant in Tiel Museum found to be fake

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on February 16, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Heritage, Netherlands, Western Europe

The so-called Golden Fleece in the Flipje en Streekmuseum in Tiel is a fake. The 'golden pendant', said to belong to Tiel knight Claes Vijg, does not date from 1559 nor is it made of gold. It's a bad copy made of brass with a thin layer of gold paint, museum director Alexandra van Steen discovered, De Gelderlander reports.

The 'Golden Fleece' pendant [Credit: @Flipjemuseum/Twitter]

"During an inspection round I noticed that there was a residue on the Golden Fleece", she said to the newspaper. That wouldn't happen to a precious metal like gold. Closer inspection showed that the pendant is too light to be made of gold. The Cultural Heritage Agency investigated the composition and came to the conclusion that it was made of brass, with a thin layer of gold paint.

The pendant has been on loan to the museum from an American collector since 2013, and has been hanging in the museum under heavy security since March 2014. The piece was found in the ground around farm Thedingsweert in Tiel in the 1970's and has since been insured for 100 thousand euros.

Further investigation revealed that the Golden Fleece in the Streekmuseum was actually made by Bijouterie Du Spectacle - a company in Paris that makes film and theater props - in the 1950's. The pendant will stay in the museum for the time being. "But whether the real Golden Fleece of Vijgh still exists and where it is, that is still a mystery", Van Steen said to the newspaper.

Source: NL Times [February 16, 2019]

Macaque fossils discovered at the bottom of the North Sea

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on February 11, 2019 / comment : 0 Early Mammals, Fossils, Netherlands, Palaeontology

Together with two colleagues from the Netherlands, Senckenberg scientist Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke examined the teeth of several macaques from the bottom of the North Sea. They constitute the first fossil evidence of Old World monkeys from the guenon family (Cercopithecidae) in the North Sea region. The primate teeth were unearthed during the artificial accretion of sand for the “Maasvlakte 2” harbor extension near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The study was recently published in the scientific journal Revue de Paléobiologie.

Left upper canine of the fossil macaque species from the bottom of the North Sea [Credit: S. Döring, Senckenberg Weimar]

Yielding the remains of woolly rhinoceros, broad-fronted moose, cave lions and straight tusked elephant, the bottom of the North Sea has long been considered one of the most important fossil sites for the reconstruction of life in Europe during the Ice Age. “The number of mammoth teeth from the North Sea alone surpasses 50,000,” according to an estimate by Dick Mol, a veteran researcher intimately acquainted with the local site conditions. Prof. Dr. Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke of the Senckenberg Research Station for Quaternary Paleontology in Weimar continues: “The large number of skeletal remains of Ice Age land mammals are evidence that large parts of the North Sea repeatedly were part of the European mainland. The long list of mammal species documented from the glacial and interglacial periods during the Ice Age can now be extended by adding a species of macaque.”

In the current study, the Dutch-German team of scientists led by Prof. Dr. Jelle W.F. Reumer of the University of Utrecht was able to assign several fossil teeth from the North Sea as well as a fragment of a lower jaw to the macaque species Macaca sylvanus. The discoveries date from different interglacial periods during the Ice Age. They came from animals that bore a striking resemblance to the modern Barbary macaques still found around the Rock of Gibraltar.

The fossils were retrieved from the Maasvlakte 2, an artificial island with modern industrial and harbor facilities near Rotterdam. To build the Maasvlakte 2, a mixture of sand and water was suctioned from the bottom of the North Sea at a distance of 10 to 20 kilometers and sprayed onto the artificial island using extremely high pressure. The resulting, giant spray fans often cause the formation of rainbows. “In this process, referred to as “rainbowing,” fossils are frequently transported from the sea bottom onto the island, where they are collected by specialists,” explains Reumer, and he adds: “This way, we were also able to obtain the extremely rare macaque teeth.”

Modern-day macaques (Barbary macaques) with young. The same species once inhabited the North Sea region [Credit: S. Schneider, Senckenberg Weimar]

But how do the bones of terrestrial mammals from the Ice Age end up at the bottom of the North Sea? Kahlke explains: “The region that is the North Sea today only flooded once the Ice Age glaciers began to melt, and the English Channel opened into an inlet. Prior to that time, the topography of Northwest Europe was primarily influenced by changing sea levels, which in turn were determined by the climate conditions. The retention of an enormous volume of water in the Ice Age glaciers caused the sea level to drop by up to 120 meters during the time of maximum glaciation in the last glacial period a little over 20,000 years ago. Large parts of the current North Sea also dried out and could be inhabited by terrestrial animals. They are the source of the bones we now find on the sea floor. Similar events also occurred in earlier periods.”

Modern macaques are adept climbers that prefer rocky landscapes. However, such rock formations did not exist during the Ice Age in the area of the current North Sea. The team of scientists assumes that the roughly 70-centimeter-long animals found refuge in trees instead. It therefore stands to reason that the macaques’ habitat – covered by water and sediments today – must have been at least partially forested.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to determine the age of the teeth with absolute certainty, since the fossils can no longer be assigned to their original sediment layer. A lower jaw fragment including a wisdom tooth probably dates from the Eemian Interglacial, 126,000 to 115,000 years ago. Due to their intensive mineralization, the other two fossils are likely much older,” according to Reumer, who adds in closing: “The new discoveries are proof that the North Sea still holds many secrets.”

Source: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum [February 11, 2019]

Middle Ages 'love ring' found in the Netherlands

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on February 08, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Netherlands, Northern Europe

A golden love ring from the Middle Ages was recently found in the Dutch province of Utrecht. This is the first time ever that a so-called 'black letter posy ring' is found in the Netherlands, Landscape Heritage Utrecht's archeology department announced. The location where this unique discovery was made was not disclosed, at the request of the anonymous finder.

A black letter posy ring from between 1375 and 1550 found in Utrecht [Credit: Landschap Erfgoed Utrecht]

The love ring dates from between 1375 and 1550, according to the organization. Sweet messages were engraved on such rings, like 'think of me' or 'I love only you'. These rings were mainly made in England for women.

The text on the ring found in Utrecht is something of a puzzle. The French words "Amours portent mon cuer à mon ami" are engraved on the inside of the ring. That translates to: "Love carries my heart to my love", according to the organization.

The text uses the male form of 'ami', and not the female 'a mon ami', which either shows that the ring was for a man, or the maker was not very proficient in French.

The image on the ring also raises questions. It could be a hunting dog, as a sign of loyalty, or a panthere d'amour - a love panther, according to the organization.

Author: Janene Pieters | Source: Nl Times [February 08, 2019]

Skeletons from Eighty Years' War found at Den Bosch, Netherlands

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on February 08, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Netherlands, Western Europe

Three skeletons were found during archaeological excavations in Den Bosch. The skeletons are believed to be soldiers who died during the siege of the city in the Eighty Years' War in the 17th century. Two skeletons were excavated during the past few days. The third skeleton is in the process of being excavated on Thursday, NOS reports.

Credit: NOS/Trudy van Rijswijk

The soldiers likely formed part of the army of Frederik Hendrik, who besieged Den Bosch in 1629's - Hertogenbosch was in the hands of the Spaniards at the time. The city was seen as an almost impregnable fortress, because the surrounding areas were flooded.

Credit: © Roy Lazet

Between April and September 1629, Frederik Hendrik succeeded in surrounding and besieging the city by laying a line of dikes, mills and pumping stations, with which he pumped the water away. The capture of Den Bosch is considered the greatest victor of Frederik Hendrik and his young Republic.

Credit: NOS/Trudy van Rijswijk

The skeletons were found at the Isabellaveld in Vught, where there used to be a Spanish fort. Houses are now being built on the field. Traces of lead were found on one skeleton, indicating that this person was shot to death. The archaeologists also found weapons, hundreds of lead musket bullets and the remains of trenches and cart tracks.

Credit: NOS/Trudy van Rijswijk

While victims of the Eighty Years' War are often found during excavations, this is the first time that it happened in Den Bosch.

Author: Janene Pieters | Source: NLTimes [February 08, 2019]

Four fragments of looted frescoes repatriated to Cyprus

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on January 24, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Cyprus, Europe, Heritage, Netherlands, Southern Europe

Four fragments of religious frescoes removed from churches in the north following the 1974 Turkish invasion on Monday were handed over to the Republic in the Netherlands after they were recovered by international NGO Walk of Truth.

Credit: Department of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus

Two of the frescoes have been identified as belonging to the church of Panayia Absinthiotissa, a monastery at Syhari, near Kyrenia.

They are a portrayal of Virgin Mary attending the deposition of Christ and an image of a martyr.

The provenance of one of the other two frescoes is not known, but it has also been identified as Cypriot.

Credit: Department of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus

The monastery, founded in the 11th or 12th centuries as a Byzantine foundation, took its name from the absinth that grows in the area.

During the Ottoman years, the monastery became the property of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Transport Minister Vassiliki Anastasiadou, who travelled to the Hague to collect the frescoes, said one of them came from the church of the Virgin Mary in Assia, Famagusta.

Credit: Department of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus

The 15th century church was entirely lined with frescoes initially and until 1974 some were still preserved high on the east wall, portraying saints and prophets.

The iconostasis was destroyed during or after the invasion and the 17th century carved wooden cross and the frescoes were stolen.

The church is being restored by the bicommunal technical committee for culture.

Credit: Department of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus

More than 500 churches situated in the areas under Turkish occupation since 1974 have been destroyed, plundered and looted or turned into stables, warehouses, restaurants and hotels.

Source: Cyprus Mail [January 24, 2019]

How two metal detectorists discovered a complete Roman treasure

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on January 21, 2019 / comment : 0 Archaeology, Europe, Netherlands, Western Europe

In 2017, in an ordinary field, two brothers from Brabant discovered more than 100 ancient coins. The Leiden historian who examined the coins concluded that they constituted a genuine Roman treasure. Here follows a reconstruction in three acts.

Act 1 – A cold winter's day in Brabant

'I'm going to be a bit late.' Nico van Schaijk sounded like he was in a rush when he called his wife in February 2017. There was an edge to his voice. 'Don't expect me home for dinner. It's crazy here.' Then he hung up. His wife had heard enough.

Credit: Merijn van Nuland

The afternoon had actually been rather unsuccessful up to that point. Nico and his brother Wim had been tramping around fields in Berlicum, a village in Brabant not far from Den Bosch, for a good few hours, swinging their metal detectors to and fro in long sweeps over the ground with its light dusting of snow. Left, right, left, right. The cold gradually began to bite through their gloves, and the metal detector was growing heavier by the minute. It would be dark soon.

Of course, you always find something during a day's detectoring. An old tin can here, a pot there, or one of the countless shards from wartime grenades and bombs that still litter the ground here. But those bits and pieces are not why the brothers do it, if only because the boot of their car is already full of that stuff. That day, as Wim would later recall, all they found was 'rubbish'. They could only see one silver lining: at least they hadn't found any unexploded grenades. If they had, they'd have had to call the bomb disposal experts in to blow the thing up, and that would be the end of any more detectoring.

'Should we stop looking?' Wim asked his brother as they stood close to the stream named the Aa. The water board was working to allow the considerably built-up brook to find its own meandering path again, and the ground was all churned up. 'OK,' Nico answered, 'but let's just do one more pass in that boggy area.'

It was Nico's metal detector that came across it first, causing a piercing, high-pitched sound to echo across the snowy Brabant landscape. Wim's machine went off next, and then again, and again. After a while the detectors were shrieking so often and so shrilly that Wim wondered if there was something wrong with his device, but no: there really was a signal coming from the ground.

The brothers started digging like beings possessed.

Act 2 – Priceless, yet worthless

'Yes,' thought historian Liesbeth Claes of Leiden University. Although she browses internet forums fairly regularly, she had never seen anything like this: two brothers claiming to have found a large quantity of Roman coins. And in Berlicum, of all places, a Brabant village far from the big rivers, and hence far from the borders of the Roman Empire.

Credit: Merijn van Nuland

What were the coins doing there? And was it really treasure? A specialist in Roman coins, Claes was keen to look into it, so she got in touch with Nico and Wim. In the meantime the brothers had reported their find to PAN (Portable Antiquities of the Netherlands), and the National Cultural Heritage Agency (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, RCE) had decided to conduct archaeological research. She soon received photographs showing four silver denarii and 103 other coins, mainly bronze sestertii and asses.

Current scholarship has shown that the coins were minted between the reigns of emperors Vespasianus (69 CE) and Marcus Aurelius (180 CE). The find also contains one older coin by mint master Calpurnius (90 BCE). After all that time lying in a sandy stratum in a wetland area that contains a lot of naturally-occurring iron, many of the coins had developed a thick iron crust.

At first it didn't look as if this was really a treasure, as the coins weren't found at a single site, but were spread out over a larger geographical location. In archaeologist-speak: it's not a hoard. That means it's extremely unlikely that a rich Roman citizen buried an amphora of coins in the ground. Moreover, not all the coins date to a single emperor's reign, suggesting that these coins were put into the ground over a longer period.

However, Claes later concluded that it is very likely to be a treasure after all, of the type known as a votive treasure. Several different people probably left coins at this specific place over a longer period. This is quite possible, as RCE research has shown that in Roman times the site of the find was a fordable point in the Aa. Could the coins have been an offering to the gods to ensure a safe crossing?

Claes explains that the find is special on its own merits: it clearly shows that Roman life in the Netherlands was not limited to the fortifications along the Rhine and Waal rivers. There was also activity further inland. 'And who knows? Maybe the crossing at Berlicum was a key stopover between the various important Roman towns in the area, such as the temple dedicated to Hercules Magusanus in Empel, the pottery in Halder and the settlement at Cuijk,' Claes suggests.

Are the coins worth anything? Claes has to laugh. 'I get asked that a lot. In this case, not really. All the bronze coins together are probably worth less than €20, partly because they're so corroded. The four silver denarii are in a much better condition; they'd be worth about €100 each. But the historical value of this find is many times greater than its financial worth.'

Credit: Merijn van Nuland

Act 3 – What remains is the story

Back in Berlicum, the brothers share rueful smiles. They're aware that the find is not the key to their early retirement – just getting the coins cleaned probably cost more than they would fetch on the open market. So Wim is heading back to his security firm, and Nico is returning to his cows. The person who pumps out the manure from under the floor of the stalls is on his way, so Nico has to get going.

What remains is the story: the story of two brothers from Brabant whose ordinary metal detectors revealed a complete Roman treasure. The media descended on the story in no time. From the local paper to the national news, from the regional Brabants Dagblad newspaper to TV channel SBS6: Nico and Wim have patiently shown the journalists around 'their' field by the winding river Aa. They've become used to being photographed, spade and metal detector in hand. It's been a crazy time for these two amateur metal detectorists.

We leave the field. When we get to the car, Nico puts his metal detector away, closes the boot and gets behind the wheel. The dashboard is covered in a fine layer of grime, and there are muddy footprints on the carpet: this car clearly belongs to an outdoors person. Nico starts the engine, slowly releases the clutch and drives away along the sandy lane. Tonight, he'll be eating at home.

Author: Merijn Van Nuland | Source: Leiden University [January 21, 2019]

Netherlands fossil deposit much richer than expected

By: Thomas Schmitt Attorney on January 14, 2019 / comment : 0 Fossils, Netherlands, Palaeontology

It has long been known that a quarry near the Dutch town of Winterswijk is an Eldorado for fossil lovers. But even connoisseurs will be surprised just how outstanding the site actually is. A student at the University of Bonn, himself a Dutchman and passionate fossil collector, has now analyzed pieces from museums and private collections for his master's thesis. He found an amazing amount of almost completely preserved skeletons, all between 242 and 247 million years old. The good condition is presumably due to particularly favorable development conditions. These make Winterswijk, which belongs to the so-called Germanic Basin, a cornucopia for paleontology. The study is published in the Paläontologische Zeitschrift.

CHW 189 from the private collection of Herman Winkelhorst (Netherlands). The neck of the animal is excellently preserved, but the rest is not. One possible explanation may be that this is the result of uneven colonization of the carcass by microorganisms and algae, which created a protective layer especially around the neck [Credit: © Jelle Heijne/Uni Bonn]

Jelle Heijne examined exactly 327 remains of marine reptiles for his master's thesis -- collected partly from public museums, but primarily from about 20 private collections. He was particularly impressed by the high quality of the finds: "Among them were more than 20 contiguous skeletons," he emphasizes. "Only very few complete skeleton finds are known from the other sites of the Germanic Basin, which stretches from England to Poland."

In his study, the 25-year-old investigated the question of why the bones, which are over 240 million years old, have been preserved so well here. The reason is probably a combination of fortunate circumstances: At that time the Germanic Basin was a sea, which was extremely shallow in today's Winterswijk. This is illustrated by the fossil footprints of terrestrial animals that were found not far from the reptile bones. The region probably resembled today's Wadden Sea of the North Sea coast, but with a bottom that was not sandy but covered in lime silt.

The shallow depth ensured that cadavers quickly hit the ground, where they were then covered by sediment. If dead animals float in the water for a long time and are tossed back and forth by waves and currents, the probability increases that body parts, such as tail, limbs or head, are lost.

This is Jelle Heijne recovering a fish fossil during an excavation in Winterswijk in 2013 [Credit: © Privat/Uni Bonn]

Another important factor was a process called "Stick'n'Peel" by paleontologists: The animal is colonized by microorganisms and algae that hold the skeleton together like a skin. "It was probably these two factors in particular that favored the occurrence of well-preserved finds," explains Heijne.

In fact, there is some evidence for the Stick'n'Peel hypothesis. For example, some skeletons lack individual larger bones, while the small bones are complete -- even though the latter are usually most likely to be carried away by the water. "Such unusual patterns typically occur when a skeleton is unevenly colonized and thus protected," Heijne explains.

It has long been known that Winterswijk stands out among the sites of the Germanic Basin. Nevertheless, the large number of high-quality finds is likely to surprise even connoisseurs, especially since most of the finds are not accessible to the public. "I have been a member of an association of private collectors in the Netherlands for years," Heijne explains. This was the ideal contact exchange for his study: "The collectors I approached were all proud to be able to contribute to the research on Winterswijk."

Source: University of Bonn [January 14, 2019]