Van Giffen: ‘Father of the dolmens’, but also ‘a difficult gentleman’

We are sitting with Verhart on the terrace of the Drents Museum in Assen, where Van Giffen was once curator. That could have turned out differently, because the Leiden Museum of Antiquities welcomed Van Giffen with open arms in the early 10’s. The director’s son is Jan Hendrik Holwerda, Van Giffen starts there as his student. Initially it is a promising collaboration. Leo Verhart: “Albert Egges van Giffen is a young biologist, a vicar’s son from Drenthe. As a student he supervises the excavation of mounds, which were excavated commercially at the time and where archaeological finds were made. The young Van Giffen, until then perhaps a bit aimless in life, being gripped by archaeology.”

“The Holwerdas want him in Leiden, impressed as they are by his zest for work, ambition and intelligence. That happened in 1912. That summer Van Giffen excavated the peat road of Buinen. That is where things go wrong. He was very bad at dealing with He had very high demands, but these were civil servants who more or less worked from 9 to 5. There were specific rules how to deal with that. Van Giffen did not listen to that, he insulted his staff. addressed.”

He comes into conflict with Holwerda and that escalates. “That is indeed getting completely out of hand, Van Giffen, a starting archaeologist, manages to get the case on the desk of the Prime Minister, he has something else on his mind, the First World War has broken out It will not be solved. For example, Van Giffen accuses Holwerda of scientific fraud.”

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