Abstract
The topic of this thesis is the Origin of the Dutch coastal landscapes during the Holocene. The landscape evolution is visualized in a series of palaeogeographical maps, and the driving mechanisms behind the environmental changes are discussed. The practice to make palaeogeographical map reconstructions in the Netherlands developed after the
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Second World War when a lot of regional geological and soil scientific mapping programs were carried out by government institutions and universities. The palaeogeographical map reconstructions were subsequently used for the understanding and modelling of the long-term coastal evolution, coastal management issues, landscape-archaeological purposes and for education and public information.
The aim of this thesis is to describe how the palaeogeographical maps are compiled, what kind of data was used and what the goals were which had to be achieved with the maps. Palaeogeographical maps can be drawn on three scale levels: national, regional and local. The format of this book follows this subdivision. Geoarchaeology is involved in all these studies. Geological and palaeo-environmental data from archaeological excavations and surveys, ‘key sites’ in the landscape reconstruction, provided essential information for the palaeogeographical reconstructions.
In the introduction (Chapter 1) the background of the landscape reconstructions is given, the geological / palaeo-environmental terminology and stratigraphic classifications are discussed, the role of archaeology in the coastal reconstruction treated, and the driving mechanisms in coastal evolution are elaborated upon.
Chapter 2 discusses the compilation of 11 palaeogeographical maps of the Netherlands.
Chapter 3 reports about three regional palaeogeographical studies. The flooding history of the Southwestern Netherlands is described in Chapter 3.1.
The landscape history of the Oer-IJ tidal system (middle Noord-Holland) is the subject of Chapter 3.2. The landscape development of this system is described on a regional to supra-regional scale. In Chapter 3.3 five landscape reconstructions of the coastal area of the Northern Netherlands and Lower Saxony between 500 BC and today are presented.
Three local palaeogeographical case studies are described in Chapter 4. The Yangtze harbour (water connection between the Maasvlakte 1 and 2; Port of Rotterdam) study is an example of a research in which geology and palaeolandscape reconstructions were used as tools for archaeological prospection of potential Stone-Age archaeology in the subsurface of the harbour (Chapter 4.1).
The study of the Vergulde Hand West in Vlaardingen (VHW; Chapter 4.2) describes the landscape development of a peat site along the northern margin of the Rhine–Meuse Estuary. At this location archaeological remains from the Bronze Age up to the Middle Ages were found.
The landscape evolution around a Middle Bronze Age site in the area of Geestmerambacht, north of Alkmaar, is the subject of Chapter 4.3. The area was part of the former Westfriese tidal-inlet system and the archaeological site is located on top of a salt-marsh ridge.
In the synthesis, Chapter 5, the landscape development of the Netherlands is summarized. For the time intervals between the different national palaeogeographical maps, the mechanisms driving coastal evolution are analysed.
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