Holes in the ground and the garage door, mold on boxes and medieval pots. The pilots of the northern archaeological depot in Nuis must be tackled considerably.
“You see what happens to those finds, when they are stored under fairly humid conditions and the temperature is not properly checked,” says depot holder Dion Stoop. “Then you really get such a fungal result over the entire pot and that is bad for the collection.”
All archaeological finds that are made in the three northern provinces, including everything that is found in the Drenthe ground, are stored in the depot in Nuis in Groningen. That depot consists of three sheds that were built in the sixties. They are outdated, says Stoop during a tour. “Because there is an unstable temperature, because it is not a sustainable building, the finds can be affected by moisture and by vermin. The finds are also poorly accessible because they are on pallets in racks.”
“We have to make the buildings more sustainable and better insulate. More order,” says Stoop. Of the three sheds, one shed has already been tackled. Yet more has to be done to be able to keep all archaeological finds as well as possible. He is therefore very happy that the three northern provinces each seem to be 2.6 million euros for the renovation job.
“The full archaeological heritage of Drenthe that is not in the Drents Museum in Assen is here,” Stoop closes. “If you lose that, you actually lose a very large part of your history.”