Een terp op de schop: het archeologisch onderzoek op het Oldehoofsterkerkhof in Leeuwarden (Fr.)

Samenvatting

Turning the terp soil: archaeological research on the Oldehoofsterkerkhof in Leeuwarden (Friesland). In several campaigns from 2004 to 2006, a large-scale excavation has been carried out at the foot of a famous Frisian church tower, called ‘Oldehove’. The tower sits on top of a terp or dwelling mound, into which an underground car park is to be built. In two to nine layers, a total of 6,000 m² have been documented, containing settlement traces from the Roman and Early Medieval periods. These show the development of a small core podium with a single farmhouse in the early and middle Roman period into a larger settlement with perhaps two or three farmsteads in the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. The house plans from the Roman period are especially well preserved, including remains of the wooden posts and walls. The settlement was abandoned in the 10th or 11th century, following its transformation into a religious site with a church and graveyard. Special finds are two fragments of ship’s timbers – the first from the northern Netherlands – dating from the early 1st and late 9th centuries AD.