Like a young doe, archaeologist Tamar Buikema climbs the mountains to give us a nice view over the excavation site. She gives a tour of the excavation especially for Kennislink. ”We have been digging for about seven weeks now, and are moving towards final work. Another week or two, and the excavation will be over," says Tamar.
Since September 16, 2009, the AAC Project Office has been carrying out excavations at the Retsel industrial estate in Heeswijk-Dinther. As early as 2005, preliminary investigations revealed traces of possible habitation in the area and the presence of a Roman burial field. This preliminary investigation prompted the municipality of Bernheze to have archaeologists carry out extensive research into the site. But what do they all find there?
In the pit, archaeologists are busy immortalizing the uncovered soil traces in the field drawing. A little further on, the excavator creates a new surface. The machine must first dig through a plowed ash deck before the archaeological trace level is visible. For archaeologists, the succession of earth layers is very important in order to be able to make statements about the use of the landscape. Sometimes that is quite complicated because the soil also changes due to human actions.
Tamar explains:“This site was reclaimed during the Middle Ages and used as arable land. The original old soil layer has therefore been disturbed by plowing by the farmers. We have to dig relatively deep to find traces."
In the overview drawing of the excavation, the archaeologist points to brown spots. “Where you see those brown spots on the drawing, we have found the original old soil formation. Those spots are depressions in the landscape. You do not immediately have to think of fens, but of lower parts in the landscape. During the time this burial field was in use, a difference in height was clearly visible in the landscape. So the landscape was not as flat as it is today.”
Tracks
Only square and round traces of the grave field can now be seen in the plane. “Those square and round tracks are the ditches that surrounded the graves,” Tamar explains. “Within these structures there were mounds in which the burials were made. But it is precisely that upper part – the hills – that we have lost due to the plowed sand that has been absorbed into the ash deck. As a result, we do find many grave structures, but not always the grave pit with accompanying cremation remains. Sometimes we are lucky and the old users have already dug a burial pit before they have built the mound. As a result, the burial pit is deeper in the ground. In that case, luckily we will find them.”
Dating
One of the research questions that the archaeologists have during the excavation is the period of use of the burial field. “Precise dating of this burial site is difficult,” says Tamar. “We can roughly date this burial field based on the shapes of the burial structures (round and square). Square tomb structures came into vogue in Roman times. Round tomb structures are also very common in Roman times, but they also occur earlier. It is therefore possible that this burial field was already created in the Late Iron Age and remained in use until Roman times.”
“Normally pottery can help us to give a more precise dating. The only problem is that few grave goods were given in the Late Iron Age. We have found relatively little 'typical' pottery of that time. In addition, the interpretation of the shards that we did find is very difficult. In the native Roman tradition, hand-formed pottery continues to occur next to the characteristic Roman pottery wheel. In order to be able to make a well-founded statement about the dating of the grave field, we took charcoal samples. These samples will be sent to the lab after the excavation for a C14 dating."
Riddles
The number of graves and the exact dating are not the only mysteries facing the archaeologists of the AAC Project Bureau. There is still a rectangular ground track in the field. The track is so large (20 m by 35 m) that it must have been clearly visible in the burial field in Roman times. What could this be? Tamar scratches behind the ear with a pencil.
“This is also a ditch. But this ditch is so big, only a few parallels have been found in the Netherlands. In some of those cases it is sometimes assumed that it may be a cult place, a place that was central during the death ritual. The reason for assuming that are pile tracks that have been found on the inside or the outside of such trenches. We have also found pole pits on the inside of our ditch. But there are only three. I do not know whether that is sufficient reason to assume that this is also a cult place. But a small one has also been found in the middle of this enormous track. In any case, that suggests that it was a special place.”
Another riddle that gets Tamar very excited are a number of drinking cups found on the brink of the aforementioned depression. “We found a number of Roman drinking cups on the edges of the depressions. They are all placed upright in the bottom. It is special because they lie right on the edges of those depressions, with no further traces around them. Why did the users of the grave field put these cups here? We suspect that it is a ritual deposition. The users of the grave field purposely placed the cups there. We often find ordinary pottery broken or skewed. But not this one! We have salvaged all the cups with the contents still in them. After the excavation, they are scooped out by a specialist. Paleobotanical research is then carried out. Perhaps there will be another surprising conclusion. Perhaps there is a correlation between the jars in terms of content! But we will have to wait and see those results.”