“Advanced puzzles”, Alkmaar archaeologists come across the late Middle Ages

Carefully, an excavator scrapes layers of the sand that may contain historical remains. If an archaeologist’s hand is raised, the driver stops immediately. With a shovel, trowel and broom, you can then look further to see if there are any special things to see.

Whenever there is construction work in the old town of Alkmaar, the expertise of the city archaeologists is called in. This is also the case in the narrow Boterstraat, a side street that connects the Langestraat with the Laat. Two buildings have been demolished there. And before construction starts again, the team of city archaeologists will be given the opportunity to conduct research.

“We are diving into the late Middle Ages here, I think we will end up around 1350”, Nancy de Jong suspects. What exactly they will find is always a surprise. “But there seems to have been a much bigger house here than expected.”

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“We found an old well, where people used to store their drinking water. And a little further back we came across a stone wall. I think from around 1575-1625. That must be the old back facade.”

And a little further back, and a little deeper in the ground, is another nice surprise. “That thick black-gray layer you see there,” she says, pointing to a dark stripe with a floor of bricks underneath. “This is a medieval fireplace, but it is a lot older: between 1350 and 1450.”

“You know, people have lived in the same place in Alkmaar for so long that the whole history can actually be found in a package of one meter. As a result, you can easily go through several centuries with your shovel. And it’s all about and intertwined, so it’s a kind of advanced puzzle.”

But the distance from the street to the location of the hearth surprises Nancy the most. “We are here at least 19 meters from Boterstraat. And we now think that this house must have been quite large. At that time, the largest houses, the so-called city castles, were mainly on Langestraat. Here and in other places, mainly wooden cottages. But that may have been different.”

Whether that is the case, stands or falls with finding a stone side wall. “If we find them here, then we are really dealing with a very large house. Then someone with some respect lived here: patricians, the well-to-do middle class.”

“We have also found such a large house further down the road, and then possibly again. Yes, then we have to adjust the story to the Boterstraat a bit. There used to be a butter market here, hence the street name, but it was for that still a richer street.”

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The archaeologists have a total of fifteen working days for their search. They’re about half way through now. “If it turns out to be such a big house, then we really need all that time to map everything out.”

And after that? “Sand about it. And that’s not a bad thing, that’s been happening for centuries. But then we were able to record it and with that information we can always sharpen and improve the image of Alkmaar in that time.”