After a ground coring was done by Leiden University at Vrouw Vennepolder, pollen research has been conducted by archaeology students. In this bachelor thesis, the pollen diagram which came out as a...Show moreAfter a ground coring was done by Leiden University at Vrouw Vennepolder, pollen research has been conducted by archaeology students. In this bachelor thesis, the pollen diagram which came out as a result of the thesis, has been used to reconstruct the past landscape and to look into ways that the taxa present in the pollen diagram could have been used for multiple purposes. At last, there was something said on the effects this had on the decline of biodiversity in the area. Vrouw Vennepolder is a site located on the northeast outside of Leiden in the municipality of Kaag en Braassem. The region has had peat extractions from the 11th century onwards. The polder itself was created in the 17th century as a result of merging four pieces of land together. The plants indicate that they were on slightly saline grounds before peat extraction started in the 11th century AD. After that, the plants representing the layers are mostly fresh or brackish water plants. Both during the peat extraction and the polder formation, there were taxa present that could have been used by the local population. These plants include a variety of trees, shrubs and herbaceous species that are known for their specific uses both in the past and now. For the dating of the site, peat accumulation rates and a pollen diagram from Kijkduin have been used. These two factors together gave a good comparison of the time development in the pollen diagram of Vrouw Vennepolder. The development starts at 170 centimetres and ends at 50 centimetres. There is no clear timespan given to the layers below 170 centimetres. One can see a transition of the plant populations present at the site on the pollen diagram. As the human influence got bigger at the site, the biodiversity declined too. The distribution of trees and shrubs also changed over time, as herbaceous plant species slowly got more represented. Nadat door de Universiteit Leiden een grondboring was gedaan op de Vrouw Vennepolder, is er pollenonderzoek gedaan door archeologie studenten. In deze bachelorscriptie is het pollendiagram dat naar aanleiding van het proefschrift naar voren is gekomen, gebruikt om het landschap uit het verleden te reconstrueren en om te onderzoeken hoe de taxa in het pollendiagram voor meerdere doeleinden konden worden gebruikt. Uiteindelijk is er ook iets gezegd over de effecten dat dit had op de achteruitgang van de biodiversiteit in het gebied. Vrouw Vennepolder ligt in het noordoosten buiten Leiden in de gemeente Kaag en Braassem. Vanaf de 11e eeuw wordt turf gewonnen in de regio. De polder zelf is in de 17e eeuw ontstaan door het samenvoegen van vier stukken land. De planten in het pollendiagram geven aan dat ze op licht zoute gronden stonden voordat de turfwinningen in de 11e eeuw begonnen. Daarna zijn de planten die de lagen vertegenwoordigen meestal zoet- of brakwaterplanten geweest. Zowel tijdens de turfwinning als de polder formatie waren er taxa aanwezig die door de lokale bevolking gebruikt hadden kunnen worden. Deze planten omvatten een verscheidenheid aan bomen, struiken en kruidachtige soorten die zowel in het verleden als heden bekend staan om verschillende gebruiken. Voor de datering van de vindplaats is gebruik gemaakt van veen accumulatie snelheden en een pollendiagram uit Kijkduin. Deze twee factoren samen gaven een goede vergelijking van het tijdsverloop in het pollendiagram van Vrouw Vennepolder. De ontwikkeling begint bij 170 centimeter en eindigt bij 50 centimeter. Er is geen duidelijke tijdsaanduiding gegeven aan de lagen onder de 170 centimeter. Op het pollendiagram is een overgang te zien van de aanwezige planten populaties op de locatie. Naarmate de menselijke invloeden op de plaats groter werden, nam ook de biodiversiteit af. Ook de verspreiding van bomen en struiken veranderde in de loop van de tijd, omdat kruidachtige plantensoorten langzaamaan meer vertegenwoordigd werden.Show less
Wijk bij Duurstede is built on top of the Early Medieval settlement Dorestad. In 2008 ‘Veilingterrein’, an area adjoining the former port area, was excavated. Among the finds were 50 water wells....Show moreWijk bij Duurstede is built on top of the Early Medieval settlement Dorestad. In 2008 ‘Veilingterrein’, an area adjoining the former port area, was excavated. Among the finds were 50 water wells. For this study two of these wells were investigated at the Cultural Heritage Agency (lab Stichting RING/RCE). One water well was made of a discarded cask made of 23 oak staves and a piece of beech. Samples were taken from the staves and the tree rings measured. The staves were found to originate from one single tree. Synchronising the data from all staves created a series of 111 tree rings, including 11sapwood rings. This series did not match reliably with the reference chronologies. Cross-dating individual staves with the chronologies was not successful either. The piece of beech could not be dated dendrochronologically. The second water-well, a hollowed-out oak, was sampled, the synchronised measurements totalled 92 rings, no sapwood was present. The wood did not match with the reference chronologies.Show less
From the site Seru Boca on Curaçao where archeological research was conducted by the Faculty of Archeology of the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, charcoal from a hearth place was brought to...Show moreFrom the site Seru Boca on Curaçao where archeological research was conducted by the Faculty of Archeology of the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, charcoal from a hearth place was brought to the botanical laboratory. In order to analyse the relationship of the people who lit the fire with their environment, charcoal determination is conducted in this report. The relevance of charcoal investigation is addressed and for determination, sixteen recent samples were compared with the archeological charcoal and morphological features were looked at. Several approaches towards the choice of wood are noted; not only the suitability, determined by ecophysical and mechanical properties and availibity is looked at, but also ethnographical usage of species is briefly addressed. Concerning the determination, it was established that the species found, Laguncularia racemosa, was present in the vegetation between 1415 and 1648, in which period the archeological charcoal remains were carbon dated.Show less
Plant macrofossils were studied from crevasse channel deposits of the Neolithic site at the future windmill park at Hazerswoude-Rijndijk, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands. The crevasse channel was...Show morePlant macrofossils were studied from crevasse channel deposits of the Neolithic site at the future windmill park at Hazerswoude-Rijndijk, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands. The crevasse channel was situated beside a levee. On this levee existed, during the Sub-Boreal period from 3,000 to 1,900 B.C., first a settlement of the Vlaardingen culture and later of the Single Grave culture. In this paper, an attempt will be made to reconstruct the vegetation and environment at the time of deposition. Taxa recovered indicate an intertidal wetland habitat. The taxa represented indicate very similar climatic conditions to those today, although possibly more continental, as indicated by the presence of Trapa natans and Salvinia natans. Anthropogenic influence is suggested by occurrence of ruderal plant taxa. An unexpected find was the fragment of an Abies needle, as the ecology of species in this genus does not fit with that of the site. Results are compared to those of other studies of the site. Besides plant macrofossils, remains of animals found in the samples are discussed.Show less
Within the scope of this thesis, a macro-botanical investigation was undertaken of 500 ml sediment of samples from two wells (North-4 and South-10) and a well-like feature (South-22) from a...Show moreWithin the scope of this thesis, a macro-botanical investigation was undertaken of 500 ml sediment of samples from two wells (North-4 and South-10) and a well-like feature (South-22) from a Merovingian settlement (6th/7th century) near Oegstgeest, as well as an additional very-small-macro-botanical investigation (250-100 micrometres) of 5 ml sediment and a micro-botanical quick scan investigation of feature South-22. The Merovingian settlement was partly exposed during the Oegstgeest Nieuw Rhijngeest Zuid 2009 excavation by the Faculty of Archaeology (University of Leiden). Three research aims formed the basis of the archaeobotanical investigations: 1) the Merovingian vegetation, 2) the Merovingian cultivated or used plants, and 3) the nature of feature South-22, which might have been a cesspit. All three features showed a similar image of the Merovingian vegetation. Two methods were used to reconstruct the vegetation: a simplistic method of Arnolds & Van der Maarel (1979) and an additional phytosociological study. The Merovingian settlement next to the course of the Oude Rijn was situated in an open landscape which was regularly under influence of sea water. Intertwined grassland-, arable field- and salt marsh vegetations were bordering the river. Further on, forests were present at the elevated places in the landscape, on the old dunes and at the peat soils. Three cultivated products have been found in the southern part of the settlement: Linum usitatissimum (linseed/common flax) which was probably cultivitated at the higher salt marshes surroundings the Merovingian settlement and Secale cereale (rye) which was probably cultivated at the high old dunes. Vitis vinifera (common grape vine) was also consumed in that period, but probably as dried grapes that were imported. In addition to these cultivated species, the Merovingian people were able to gather many other plants from the natural vegetation, either for consumption, construction or cosmetics. Closer investigation of feature South-22 revealed that the feature has never been a cesspit, for no characterizing features of excrement, such as an abundancy of fragments of cereals grains, fruit stones, fragments of several species of cereal accompanying weeds or mammal and fish bones have been found. The presence of eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura (human-intestinal parasites) was not enough to decide that the deposit was made of human excrement. The remarkable composition of the fillings is due to the nature of the refuse (leather) that has been thrown into the well after it became out of use and not to the nature of the feature itself.Show less
