The Ussen Project: Large-Scale Settlement Archaeology of the Period 700 BC-AD 250, a Preliminary Report
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Wijnand van der Sanden The Ussen project: large-scale settlement archaeology of the period 700 BC-AD 250, a preliminary report The large-scale archaeological excavations in the remains. The majority, however, did bring to light struc municipalily of Oss—where in the course of eight years c. tures, in the form of plans of houses and outhouses and 120 house plans, some hundreds of subsidiary structures, also wells. In general, the scale of the various investiga more than 400 deep pits and wells and two large tions was small to moderately large and in no case did it cemeteries v/ere unearthed—have contributed significantly exceed 5 hectares. to our understanding of the process of Romanization in The investigation at Oss-Ussen constituted a rigorous break the southern part of the Netherlands. with this small-scale tradition. During the course of eight years a total area of c. 30 hectares was unearthed and sub- 1. Introduction mitted to archaeological research. Around this large-scale In the past 25 years extensive investigations of Iron Age investigation a regional project will be centered, in which and Roman period settlements have been carried out in the the, in many cases unpublished, excavations discussed in northeastern part of the sandy region in the southern this introduction will also play a part. Netherlands, i.e. the coversand plateau in the northeast of In the following pages a preliminary report will be given the province of North Brabant and the river dunes in the of the results gained during the Ussen excavation. It is not adjacent river-area. These investigations were conducted intended to be a balanced synthesis. Some aspects are mainly by the Institute of Prehistory of Leiden University omitted while others will be stressed. The final chapter (IPL) and, to a lesser extent, by the Dutch State Service indicates the theoretic framework within which the data for Archaeological Investigations (ROB). Since 1962, the will in due time be evaluated'. year in which the IPL was set up, the investigation of the above-mentioned periods has been centred in this region. 2. Situation, geology and post-Roman changes of That the research was starled in this particular area is no the site coincidence: when Dr. P.J.R. Modderman was appointed The site is situated in the (former) hamlet of Ussen, to the head of the institute, he brought the investigations on the northwest of the town of Oss (topographical map 45E; fig. Kamps Veld near Haps, which he had been directing while 2). Until 1976 the only buildings in the area, situated to in Amersfoort, along with him to Leiden. During the the north of the railway-line 's-Hertogenbosch-Nijmegen following 25 years, the investigation was for the greater and to the west of the road to Lith, were a few farms. part continued in the same area - by G.J. Verwers - and These farms were often built on a terp to protect them finally culminated in the 'Maaskant project'. against the disastrous consequences of the Beerse Overlaat, Figure I shows the area discussed above and the locations which caused the inundation of a large area almost of the settlements from the period 700 BC - AD 250 that annually from 1472 till 1942. were excavated in the period 1960-1985. The excavations From a geological point of view, the site is located on the concerned are the following: Wijchen-De Berendonck northern edge of the Peelhorst, directly to the east of the {fig.l.l), Wijchen-De Pas (id.: 2\ Van den Broeke 1984), Peelrand Fault (fig. 3). The subsoil consists of Pleistocene Haren (id.:3), Oss-Ussen (id.:4), Oss-Zaltbommelseweg riversands (Kreftenheye/Veghel formations), on top of (id.:5), Oss-lJsselstraat (id.:6\ Verwers 1978), Nuland- which coversand was deposited in the last part of the Kepkensdonk (id.:7), Escharen {,id.:8), Beers-Kraaienberg Weichselien period (Twente formation). The thickness of (id.:9; W.J.H. Verwers 1978), Haps (id.:IO; Verwers 1972), this aeolian deposit decreases by about a metre from the Gennep-Heijen (id.:ll; Bloemers 1983), Den Dungen south - where it measures c. 1.20 m. - to the north of the (id.:l2), Sint-Oedenrode-Everse Akkers (id.:13; Heesters site. North of Oss the Pleistocene sands are covered by 1977; Van der Sanden 1981) and Son and Breugei- Holocene river deposits, mainly formed from the Atlantic Hooidonksche Akkers (id.:l4\ Van den Broeke 1980). A period onwards (Betuwe formation). The formation of few of these investigations (Wijchen-De Pas, Haren) ievees and flood- basins in this area is dated to the Sub- yielded no structures, but mainly pottery and fauna! boreal (Van Diepen 1952) or the beginning of the 96 ANALECTA PRAEHISTORICA LEIDENSU 20 Fig. 1. North-east North Brabant: the locations where settlements of the period 700 BC - AD 250 were investigated in the period 1960-1985; for the meaning of the numbers see the text. Subatlantic period (Pons 1957). Sandy soils covered by a date are in all probability a few rectangular pits containing thin layer of clay separate the site from the basin deposits butchery refuse. All these features were discovered in a proper. The clay in the top layers of this transitional zone confined area in the western part of the site. The rest of contains drift sand that was probabiy blown there from Ussen yielded only a few stray sherds, mostly recovered the south in historical times. from ditches. In the post-Medieval period numerous dit- From the Medieval period onwards the site was graduaiiy ches were dug to divide the land into lots. These ditches, and compieteiy covered by an ancient cultivation soil or part of which was until fairly recently still visible in the «-layer, consisting of a mixture of manure and mainly landscape, and, to a lesser extent, the subrecent sand- grass sods. This layer was nowhere thicker than 90 cm. winning trenches' have obliterated a considerable part of When this area was brought under cultivation in the course the pre- and protohistorical features and have made a of the Middle Ages, the original soil profile was greatly definite interpretation of others quite impossible {fig. 4h). disturbed by digging activities. In some places there was a dark, humic layer beneath the e^-layer, which can be inter- 3. History, organization and strategy of the preted as an illuviation horizon from an old podsol soil. investigation Often however, the esAayer lay directly on top of the C- In September 1976 the municipality of Oss started the horizon. All this means that almost nowhere the old sur- 'plan Ussen', according to which, over a period of ten face of the Iron Age or the Roman period was preserved. years, a farming area of 1.5 x 1.5 km was to be turned The first level at which features showed up clearly lay into a housing-estate of the town of Oss. When the work roughly 30 cm. below that. was started with the digging of an ornamental pond, an Medieval traces are very scarce at Ussen. A plan of a barn important part of the 'natural' component of the future could possibly be dated in the 12th century {fig. 4a; residential quarter, members of the archaeological team of Theuws 1985, 62-63). A pit and two wells date back to the the Society of the Regional History of Maasland I3th and 14th centuries (Datema 1984). Also of Medieval (Heemkundekring Maasland) discovered various features •«•(••v^i^^imiij!! 97 WIJNAND VAN DER SANDEN - THE USSEN PROJECT Fig. 2. Oss: location of the site; the Investigated area is indicated in darl< grey. indicating that the area had been occupied in the Roman be unearthed. It was immediately realized that in Ussen period: a well and part of a house plan. there was a chance of giving the settlement research in the Dr. G.J. Verwers, who, in 1974-1975, had directed the southern Netherlands an additional spatial dimension: a excavation of a Roman-period settlement in the IJsselstraat total area of more than 200 hectares was going to be in Oss, was warned and he immediately started a two-week turned completely upside down, which (theoretically) rescue excavation. Thanks to the help of many people, offered the opportunity of studying for the first time the particularly the contractors, the firm Louwers from Oss, relations between contemporary settlements and between part of a settlement dating from the Roman period could settlements and cemeteries. This opinion was shared by the 98 ANALECTA PRAEHISTORICA LEIDENSIA 20 429 429 river area f sand covered by a layer of clay up to 40 cm thick I I es-layers sand Fig. 3. Oss: geological and pedological situation; the information was obtained from the soil maps 39 O and 45 O. 99 WIJNAND VAN DER SANDEN - THE USSEN PROJECT other members of the Institute, Prof. Dr. P.J.R. Modder man and Dr. C.C. Bakels. In the autumn the first discussions took place between the IPL, the Mayor and Aldermen of Oss and the contractors. The IPL was given the opportunity to submit the trench that had been dug for the main sewage-pipe to an archaeological investigation before the pipe would be laid in it. The investigation of this trench, which cuts across the entire site, was thereupon conducted intermittently from Leiden. The results of the survey were so promising that it became desirable to continue the investigation in the same manner, but with a full-time worker, operating from a permanent field base. An appeal for financial support was handed in to the Mayor and Aldermen of Oss and to the County Council of North Brabant.