Transformations in a Dutch estuary: Research in a wet landscape

Archaeology

“…By 1984, Dutch archaeologists were already involved in detailed geoarchaeological studies looking at the changing relationships between people and the land. Brandt et al (1984) showed how rising sea level changed the configuration of the land west of Amsterdam and, thus, its use by early settlers. By the early Iron Age, at least, human livestock was also changing the land, simplifying its ecology and creating a human-dominated landscape, a process that continued as people began to enclose the land with dikes.…”

Recent developments in Dutch archaeology

“…The most successful 22 view was the one which underpinned the Assendelver Polder project. The modified version of the project programme was based on a combination of an ecological approach and an approach which emphasized 'the monitoring of information processing aspects to past societies and their environments, and the use of flow structure models to conceptualize culture transformations', such as romanization (Brandt, Van der Leeuw and Van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1984). This explicit processual approach remained a hallmark of the project throughout the first half of the 1980s (Brandt, Groenman-van Waateringe and Van der Leeuw 1987).…”

For every solution there are many problems: the role and study of technical systems in socio-environmental coevolution

“…These early settlements consisted of a very small number of houses (generally 1-4). People exploited the land by planting some cereals and other edible plants and by allowing some domesticated cattle and sheep to graze there (Brandt et al, 1984). But the battle against water dominated their lives.…”