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

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.