Atlas of the Holocene Netherlands Landscape and Habitation since the Last Ice Age

About this book

The landscape of the Netherlands has been changing constantly since the end of the last ice age, some 11,700 years ago. Where we walk today was once a polar desert, a river delta or a shallow sea. The end of the last ice age marked the beginning of a new geological period – the Holocene, the relatively warm geological epoch in which we are still living today. Atlas of the Holocene Netherlands contains special maps, supplemented by archaeological and historical information. These maps show the geographical situation for thirteen different points in time since the last ice age, based on tens of thousands of drill samples and the latest geological, soil and archaeological research. This magnificent atlas also paints a surprising picture of the position we humans have occupied in the landscape. It addresses such questions as: How did we take advantage of the opportunities offered by the landscape? And how did we mould the landscape to suit our own purposes? Atlas of the Holocene Netherlands will change once and for all the way you look at the Dutch landscape.

Contents

Preface
Introduction

1. The Netherlands in the Holocene
2. What came before?
3. Rising sea levels
4. Tides and waves shape the coast
5. The big rivers fill the delta
6. Peat covers the land
7. Human intervention
8. How the maps were compiled
9. Notes on the map legends

The maps
- 9000 BCE Rising temperatures
- 5500 BCE Rising water levels
- 3850 BCE Expanding peat
- 2750 BCE The coastline closes
- 1500 BCE Peat covers the land
- 500 BCE The building of terps
- 250 BCE Changing tidal systems
- CE 100 Human impact
- CE 800 Return of the sea
- CE 1250 Dyking of rivers and salt marshes
- CE 1500 People shape the landscape
- CE 1850 Human 'nature'
- CE 2000 A country created by people

Glossary
Further reading
Acknowledgements

Customer Reviews

Biography

Peter Vos is a geologist at TNO, the Netherlands. He is the author of Origin of the Dutch Coastal Landscape, 2015.

Michiel van der Meulen is Chief Geologist of TNO, The Netherlands. He is the author of Nieuwe Geologische Kaart van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, 2018.

Henk Weerts is senior researcher at the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed).

Jos Bazelmans is Head of the Department of Archaeology at the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed).