Jan Hendrik Holwerda

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Holwerda (center) in Amsterdam (1928)

Jan Hendrik Holwerda (born December 3, 1873 in Schiedam , † March 3, 1951 in Nijmegen ) was a Dutch Provincial Roman and Medieval archaeologist as well as classical philologist and museum director.

Youth and education

Jan Hendrik Holwerda was born on December 3, 1873 in Schiedam. He was the son of Antonie Ewoud Jan Holwerda , the long-time director (1896 to 1918) of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden and his wife Neeltje Jonkheid. After attending grammar school in Schiedam, Holwerda studied classical philology at the University of Leiden from 1892 until his doctorate in 1899 . His doctoral thesis was devoted to Quaestiones de re sepulcrali apud Atticos (questions about burials in Athens). Between 1900 and 1904 he worked as a teacher at the high schools in Alkmaar and Schiedam . During this time he wrote his first archaeological textbook. On December 21, 1901, he married Petronella Nicolette Jentink, the marriage remained childless. After the brief interlude as a high school teacher, he was appointed curator at the provincial Roman department of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in 1904.

Becoming and working

Group of three burial mounds on the crown domain in Hoog Soeren

Methodologically, it was shaped by the collaboration with the German archaeologist Carl Schuchhardt as part of an international research project in 1905. During this excavation of the Roman camp in Haltern , a systematic search for discoloration of the soil was carried out for the first time, as a sign of completely crumbling building remains. Holwerda transferred the new archaeological method to the Netherlands and introduced the search for post holes and conspicuous soil discoloration in his own excavations, the first of which was in the crown domain between 1906 and 1911 at the special request of Queen Wilhelmina , who was interested in one of the burial mounds Hoog Soeren in the Veluwe . He then carried out other activities between 1908 and 1915 in Leidschendam-Voorburg , which at that time had not yet been identified as Forum Hadriani . Holwerda became known in 1909 at the latest through his investigations on the Hunneschans (also called Hunnenschans or Hunenschans ), an early medieval ring wall near Uddel , a village in the municipality of Apeldorn in the province of Gelderland . The site later gave its name to the late Carolingian Hunneschans ceramics

Conflict with Albert van Giffen

In 1910 he became lecturer for prehistoric and Roman archeology at the University of Leiden and deputy director of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. In 1919 he succeeded his father as director of the Rijksmuseum, which he remained until his retirement in 1939. From 1912 onwards, an increasingly sharp conflict arose between Holwerda and his then assistant and later professor at the University of Groningen , Albert van Giffen, about the more appropriate interpretations of findings and the more suitable excavation technique for the treatment of burial mounds . Even the intervention of the then Dutch Prime Minister Pieter Cort van der Linden was unable to settle the dispute between the two scientists, so that the scientists, who were among the most important Dutch archaeologists of their time, no longer communicated with each other.

Excavation highlights: Hunenborg, Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum, Ermelo and Dorestad

Aerial view of Hunenborg
(between 1920 and 1940)

In 1916 he led the excavation of Hunenborg , an eighth or ninth century rampart near the Nordhorn-Almelo Canal in the municipality of Dinkelland in the province of Overijssel . The Hunenborg covered an area of ​​around 100 m by 150 m and was surrounded by a moat. The main building was made of stone, had external dimensions of 12.70 m by 16.80 m and a foundation width of up to two meters. It was expanded at a later date with two additions on the east and south side. Furthermore, traces of a wooden and an adobe building could be detected. The finds consisted mainly of late Saxon and late Carolingian ball pots and Pingsdorf pottery .
From 1917 to 1921 Holwerda was the first to carry out a systematic scientific investigation of the early Roman legionary camp in Nijmegen , one of the most important and in terms of area largest Roman military bases in the Netherlands.
In 1922/1923 he was the first to scientifically investigate the Ermelo marching camp . Ermelo was a nine-hectare temporary camp that could have hosted a vexillatio up to the strength of a legion . Holwerda dated it to the fourth century, but based on more recent research it probably belongs to the second half of the second century AD.
In the 1920s, Holwerda was the first to carry out scientific investigations at Fort Matilo in Leiden-Roomburg. From 1925 to 1930 he headed the excavations of Dorestad (also Dorstad ), the most important Carolingian trading post of the 7th to 9th centuries on Frisian territory near today's Wijk bij Duurstede near Utrecht . At this point the Nederrijn forks into the Lek and the Kromme Rijn , which gave the settlement an exceptional transport and economic geographic significance and size.

Museum director and multiplier for archaeological concerns

Front view of the former Kam Museum
(status 2010)

From 1935 and beyond his retirement in 1939 until 1948, Jan Holwerda was honorary director of the Kam Museum , the predecessor building of the later Museum Het Valkhof , which now houses an archaeological study center and a comprehensive specialist library. He conducted one last excavation together with Wouter Cornelis Braat in the years 1938 to 1942, the results of which he was able to define the Roman vessel type of Holdeurn earthenware .

Far ahead of his time, he was of the opinion that the popularization of archeology was an important way to bring about a broader understanding of archaeological issues and thus of their ability to assert themselves. As early as 1931, for example, he engaged a number of women for the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden who professionally guided interested visitors through the exhibitions.

Works (selection)

  • The Attic graves of the heyday . Studies on the Attic grave reliefs. Brill, Leiden 1899.
  • Nederland's vroegste beschaving. Proeve van an archaeological system . Brill, Leiden 1907.
  • Opgraving van de Hunneschans bij het Uddelermeer . Nieuwe Rotterdam. Courant 14, Rotterdam 1908.
  • The big stone grave near Emmen (Prov. Drente) . De Gruyter, Berlin 1914.
  • De Hunenborg in Twente . Hilarius, Almelo 1917.
  • De Batavenburcht en de vesting the legio X te Nijmegen . Brill, Leiden 1922.
  • Arentsburg. A romeinsch militair Vlootstation bij Voorburg . Brill, Leiden 1923.
  • Nederland's most recent divorce . SL van Looy, Amsterdam 1925.
  • Dorestad en our most vroegste Middeleeuwen . Sijthoff, Leiden 1929.
  • Romeinsche sarcophaag uit Simpelveld . Brill, Leiden 1931.
  • The Laat-Grieksche en Romeinsche gebriksaardewerk uit the Middellandsche-Zee-Gebied in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden . Algemeene Landsdrukkerij, 's-Gravenhage 1936.
  • De belgische waar in Nijmegen . Departement van opvoeding, wetenschap en cultuurbescherming, Nijmegen 1941.
  • Het in de pottenbakkerij van de Holdeurn gefabriceerde aardewerk uit de Nijmeegsche grafvelden. Vol. 3 . Brill, Leiden 1944.
  • with Wouter Cornelius Braat: De Holdeurn bij Berg en Dal . Centrum van pannenbakkerij en aardewerkindustrie in den Romeinschen tijd, Vol. 45. Brill, Leiden 1946.

literature

  • Johannes Ayolt Brongers, WC Mank: Biography en bibliography van dr. JH Holwerda , ROB , Amersfoort 1977.
  • Leo BM Verhart: Jan Hendrik Holwerda op reis in Duitsland. De introductie van het wetenschappelijk opgraven in Nederland en vernieuwingen in museale presentaties . Swalmen 2012. (also as digitized version )
  • Leo BM Verhart: A monument voor de archeologie, a monument voor zichzelf. Het hunebeddenboek van AE van Giffen . In: Nieuwe Drentse Volksalmanach 2016, pp. 187–220. (also as digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Jan Hendrik Holwerda  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Jan Hendrik Holwerda in the Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (Dutch), accessed on October 19, 2018

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan Hendrik Holwerda: Quaestiones de re sepulcrali apud Atticos . Brill, Leiden 1899.
  2. ^ Jan Hendrik Holwerda: Hellas en Rome. Grieksche en Romeinsche archeologie . Suffering 1900.
  3. ↑ a b Jan Hendrik Holwerda in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (Dutch), accessed on October 19, 2018.
  4. ↑ Leo BM Verhart: Jan Hendrik Holwerda op reis in Duitsland. De introductie van het wetenschappelijk opgraven in Nederland en vernieuwingen in museale presentaties . Swalmen 2012. (also as digitized version )
  5. ↑ Jan Hendrik Holwerda: Arent castle. A romeinsch militair Vlootstation bij Voorburg . Brill, Leiden 1923.
  6. ↑ Jan Hendrik Holwerda: Opgraving van de Hunneschans bij het Uddelermeer Nieuwe Rotterd. Courant 14, Rotterdam 1908.
  7. ↑ H. Anthonie Heidinga: The Hunneschans at Uddel . In: Chateau Gaillard XIII, Actes du Colloque Internationale tenu à Wageningen, Pays-Bas, 31 août-6 septembre 1986, pp. 53-62. 1987.
  8. ^ A. César González-García and Lourdes Costa-Ferrer: Orientations of the Dutch hunebedden . Journal for the History of Astronomy 34.2 (2003), pp. 219-226.
  9. ↑ Leo BM Verhart: A monument voor de archeologie, a monument voor zichzelf. Het hunebeddenboek van AE van Giffen . In: Nieuwe Drentse Volksalmanach 2016, pp. 187–220. (also as digitized version )
  10. ↑ Giffen, Albert Egges van (1884-1973) stayed on the official website of the Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland: 1880-2000 (Dutch), accessed on October 19, 2018.
  11. ^ Evert van Ginkel and Wouter Vos: Grens van het Romeinse Rijk. De Limes in Zuid-Holland . Matrijs, Utrecht 2018, ISBN 978-90-5345-531-9 , pp. 74-79.
  12. ^ Jan Hendrik Holwerda: De Hunenborg in Twente . Hilarius, 1917.
  13. ^ Jan Hendrik Holwerda: De Batavenburcht en de vesting of the legio X te Nijmegen . Brill, Leiden 1922.
  14. ↑ Rudi S. Hulst: Het onderzoek van het Romeinse marskamp bij Ermelo-Leuvenum, Nederland . RACM, Amersfoort 2007, ISBN 978-90-5799-104-2 , (= Rapportage Archeologische Monumentenzorg, 146); and together with Jan Vredenberg: Het Romeins marskamp bij Ermelo. Matrijs, Utrecht 2007, ISBN 978-90-5345-292-9 .
  15. ↑ Jan Hendrik Holwerda in OMRO 4, Leiden 1923, p. 40 ff.
  16. ^ Willem Albertus van Es and Willem Johannes Hendrik Verwers: Rise, prosperity and decline of the early medieval trading metropolis Dorestad . In: Klaus Brandt, Michael Müller-Wille and Christian Radtke (eds.): Haithabu and the early urban development in northern Europe . Neumünster 2002, ISBN 3-529-01812-0 , pp. 281-301.
  17. ^ Willem Johannes Hendrik Verwers: Dorestad and the trade of the Vikings . In: Ulrich Löber: The Vikings . Koblenz 1998, ISBN 3-925915-61-3 , pp. 107-115.
  18. ^ Museum GM Kam on the official website of the Huis van de Nijmeegse Geschiedenis, accessed on October 18, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Holwerda, Jan Hendrik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Schiedam
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1951
Place of death Nijmegen