Stuff: Catalogue of Archaeological Finds from Amsterdam’s North/South Metro Line

It’s not often that archaeologists have the chance to examine a riverbed, let alone dig 25 meters down to a layer that was formed in the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago.

Thanks to the new north/south Metro line in Amsterdam, Dutch archaeologists were able to do just that – discovering almost 700,000 objects, some broken, some whole, all jumbled together. The enormous quantity, great variety and everyday nature of these material remains make them rare sources of urban history. The richly assorted collection covers a vast stretch of time, from long before the emergence of the city right up to the present day.

As the project’s website, Below the Surface, explains, “The picture [the objects] paint of their era is extremely detailed and yet entirely random due to the chance of objects or remains sinking down into the riverbed and being retrieved. This is what makes this archaeological collection so fascinating, so poetically breathtaking and abstract at one and the same time.”

In the area now covered by the Rokin, archaeologists found utensils, tools, food remains, and possibly a grave gift from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. Coins, fibulae and ceramics were found from the Roman occupation (50 BC-450 AD). In 1170 a great flood created what became known as the Zuiderzee, enabling the settlement of Amsterdam to grow into the great trading city we recognise today, with the first urban development dating from 1300.

The slow-flowing river Amstel claimed a wide range of objects which sank into its sandy, peaty bed to be preserved instead of being washed away. Unlike excavating a single house or feature, the deposits in the river were related to the material culture of the city as a whole and over a long period of time.

A subtitled documentary film is available to watch on the project’s website. Anyone wanting their own record of the finds can now purchase a 600 page catalogue – charmingly entitled Stuff – with 15,000 of the most interesting objects expertly photographed by Harold Strak. Published by Van Zoetendaal / De Harmonie, the English language edition is distributed worldwide outside the Netherlands and Belgium by Boydell & Brewer.

Arranged in sections according to the different functions that a city fulfils as a living organism (interiors and accessories, crafts and industry, personal artefacts and clothing, etc). You can see objects as varied as a 16^th century marble, pages of lethal-looking hand weapons, skulls and other bones, bottles and tools (many surprisingly intact), right up to 19^th century chess pieces, an eight of diamonds from the 1970s and telephone cards from the days before cellphones.

Stuff is available now from Boydell & Brewer and can be ordered from your usual bookseller.