Kerstdagen in de ijzertijd: Herinneringen aan Sytze en Orvelte (Dr.)

Samenvatting

An Iron Age Christmas: memories of Sytze and Orvelte (Drenthe). For five days in late December in 1979, we experienced living in a year-old reconstruction of a pre-Roman Iron Age farmhouse near Orvelte, in the north of the Netherlands. Participants in the experiment were the palaeobotanist Sytze Bottema with his family and the author’s family – four adults (aged around 40) and four children (aged 9-14) – together with four cows and three calves. Information was gathered on temperatures and living conditions. Heating of the living quarters proved to be impossible, owing to poor insulation. When seated at about 1 m from the hearth one might, however, through the fire’s radiation experience temperatures as high as 30°C on one’s front (as against 6° C on one’s back). Contrary to received wisdom, the cattle’s contribution to the indoor temperature proved to be practically negligible.