An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Long-Term History of Raised Bogs: a Case Study at Vriezenveen (the Netherlands)

Abstract

Culturally oriented studies on raised bogs in the Netherlands and neighbouring areas either focus on regional scale levels or on site/object-based information. Interdisciplinary microregional studies are key to bridge the gap between these types of data and to reconstruct human-land relations in detail. This paper analyses which cultural and natural processes were involved in the long-term development of a raised bog near Vriezenveen (province of Overijssel), by integrating geological, palynological, archaeological and historical geographical data. The study area includes both the bog, which has largely been reclaimed, and the nearby drylands. The landscape was subject to continuous change, driven by a complex and dynamic entanglement of environmental, socio-economic and ideological factors. The research results point to differences in the pace of landscape change between wetland and neighbouring drylands, and variability in the resilience of different cultural landscape elements and practices. They also illustrate the potentials as well as the problems of producing integrated narratives of landscape change and human activity for wetland environments and how these sorts of studies might be progressed in the future.

keywords:

• raised bogs
• interdisciplinary research
• the Netherlands
• landscape change and continuity
• lateral peat expansion
• archaeology
• palynology
• historical geography

Acknowledgements

This research is part of the project Deconstructing Stability. Modeling changing environmental conditions and man-land relations in the Pleistocene landscape of Twente (2850–12 BC) of the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, financed by the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Gilbert Maas (Alterra Wageningen University and Research Centre) provided detailed physical geographical data on the research area, including the two schematic bog cross-sections. Most of the objects were photographed by Frans de Vries (ToonBeeld), with the permission and assistance of Judith Jansen, Marijke Nieuwenhuis and Suzanne Wentink (Provincial Archaeological Repository of Overijssel, Deventer). The other object photos were supplied by Evert Ulrich (Museum Twentse Welle, Enschede). Bas van Geel (University of Amsterdam) and Chris de Bont (Wageningen) kindly shared palynological and historical geographical data on the Vriezenveen area. I would like to thank one anonymous reviewer, who provided valuable comments and suggestions which led to significant improvements to the text.