atlasvoice
Martin Veen with the weapons from the Gorcum harbour
In recent years there has been increasing interest in the archaeology of modern wars. That is why Het North Brabant Museum, extensive attention to this fascinating new branch of soil research. What can you find in the soil of battlefields? What does it add to what we know about waging war?
The exhibition guides you through war archaeology using archaeological objects and multimedia presentations. This way you discover the human story behind the objects.
Archaeology of war
The archaeological objects collected range from prehistoric skeletons, Roman slingshots, medieval artillery, firearms from the Battle of Arnhem to small everyday objects from Napoleonic army camps and Nazi German concentration camps. The exhibition focuses on objects from the Second World War.
Weapons from the water
The municipality of Gorinchem lent rifles for this exhibition that were dredged up from the harbour a few years ago. It is known that after the capitulation on 15 May 1940, Dutch soldiers destroyed or threw away their weapons so that they did not fall into the hands of the occupier. The Gorcum rifles were therefore first smashed to pieces before they ended up in the harbour. For more about this unusual find, also read: Weapons from the water
The exhibition “Excavated Battle, Archaeology of the War” can be visited from 28 January 2017 to 14 May 2017 at the Noordbrabants Museum in Den Bosch.