Bronze age living history in the Netherlands

The bronze age farm

In the bronze age area of Archeon we have a farm that has been reconstructed from finds in Andijk, North-Holland. In this area various ground-plans farms and field systems have been unearthed. Our farm is based on one of them, in which our ancestors lived around 1200BC. Of the original farm, only dark patches of the locations of the support posts, wall, surrounding ditch and fireplace remained, so the rest had to be build up by socalled educated guessing. For example the roof would have been made with either straw or reed. To make a good waterproof roof with this material, the angle needs to be as shown in our farm. By this method you can rebuild the farm bit by bit, and even though the not a lot remained of the original farm, the end result is a pretty good approximation of what it would have looked like.

Alongside the farm is a small field system, in which we grow various crops like corn and flax (to make linnen clothing and for lineseed for food and making lineoil). Next to the entrance of the farm is our "cooking department", were we house a bread oven and smoking oven. The smoking oven would have been used to enable the farmers to preserve food, like fish and meat, and to smoke leather to make it more flexible and durable. Another building on the site is a shed, based on finds from Bovenkarspel (near Andijk), which we use for bronze casting demonstrations..

Finally there is the temple of Bargeroosterveld. This mysterious structure was found in a bog in the provence Drente. Because of its location in the bogs, it is assumed that it had a religious role. The bogs were often used for sacrifices as is evident from the many objects and even people, which have been found in the bogs. But what kind of religious function it had is a complete mystery. The horn shaped extensions were found next to remains of the temple, and because of this and finds of cow horns in the bogs, we assume that cows had a significant role in religion, or at least in daily life. This is not surprising as most farms held cows as cattle. For that reason we've decorated our farm with cow horns on the roof and a skull as guard above the intrance.

Below is a selection of photos of the bronze age buildings in Archeon. You can click on the pictures to see the photos in full detail.


Farm front and field	Other side of the farm, stable side	Inside, showing the stables	Shelves with pottery	Fire place	Our flax, protected by a scarecrow


Smoking oven and bread oven	Bronze casting shed	Temple of Bargeroosterveld	After the harvest	Farm snowed under	Farm at night