Leiden University Student Repository

Louwen, Arjan (2010)

Urnfields in the land of isles. An analysis of urnfield – settlement relations in the eastern Netherlands

Master thesis | Archaeology (MA/MSc)

The aims of this thesis were threefold. The first and main aim was to examine urnfield – settlement relations for the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age within the research area of the eastern Netherlands. Secondly the overall picture of these relations within the eastern Netherlands was to be compared to the situation in the northern- and southern Netherlands. The third underlying aim was to illustrate the potential of the eastern Netherlands as an archaeological research area. In addition to the four already researched regions by Van Beek265 (these being south-western Salland; the northwestern and north-eastern Achterhoek and south-western Twente) north-eastern Twente was zoomed into as a fifth detail region. An examining of the present pre- and post-urnfield period settlements and burial location in combination with an inventory of the urnfield period settlements and urnfields and their locations within the physical landscape pointed out that both features underwent rather...Show moreThe aims of this thesis were threefold. The first and main aim was to examine urnfield – settlement relations for the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age within the research area of the eastern Netherlands. Secondly the overall picture of these relations within the eastern Netherlands was to be compared to the situation in the northern- and southern Netherlands. The third underlying aim was to illustrate the potential of the eastern Netherlands as an archaeological research area. In addition to the four already researched regions by Van Beek265 (these being south-western Salland; the northwestern and north-eastern Achterhoek and south-western Twente) north-eastern Twente was zoomed into as a fifth detail region. An examining of the present pre- and post-urnfield period settlements and burial location in combination with an inventory of the urnfield period settlements and urnfields and their locations within the physical landscape pointed out that both features underwent rather autonomous developments on the long-term scale and that both features had their own location within the physical landscape. The statement made in the previous sentence must be regarded as a trend and not as a law of Medes and Persians. Most of the settlements wandered around on the more central parts of sandy islands while many urnfields were situated more at the edges of these islands, mostly bordering on valleys that could have functioned as routes. Another substantial part of the urnfields was incorporated in an older burial site that was not necessarily situated at the edges of habitable units but also occurred more central within a territory. The urnfield of course clearly formed the constant factor within a presumed settlement territory compared to the wandering farmsteads that made use of the urnfield. Though the urnfield must have been very important to the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron communities in the bonding with the land and the ancestral world the “set-aside” locations of the urnfields suggest that they formed only a facet of life and not the centre of it. However by its monumental appearance and location on prominent spots within the landscape the urnfield must have been ever present on the background of daily life. A rough examining of the urnfields and settlements in the northern- and southern Netherlands showed that also in these regions attractive power is wielded on the urnfields by valleys present in the region. Habitation developments differ a little throughout the different regions. Where in Drenthe new terrains were colonized at the beginning of the urnfield period as a reaction on impoverishing soils and a growing population the settlements of the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region in the south seem to have remained within the borders of the already existing territories or were founded at the cost of these territories, this despite comparable conditions as in the northern Netherlands. The eastern Netherlands shows examples of both events. Despite this difference in habitation developments urnfield – settlement relations in the northern- and southern Netherlands do not seem to have differed much from the situation in the eastern Netherlands. Though the urnfield is imputed a very central role in the southern Netherlands it seems at first hand that also here the urnfields were situated separate from the accompanying settlements instead of in the centre of them.Show less

Author

Louwen, Arjan

Faculty

Faculty of Archaeology

Supervisors

Fokkens, H.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en