GORINCHEM – A piggy bank with a broken snout, the first flea catcher from Gorcum and a pocket watch of very early manufacture. These are some of the striking finds from the cesspit that was opened at the beginning of this year. New Town was discovered. The volunteers of the Archaeology Working Group of the Municipality of Gorinchem still have months of work to do.
Volunteers busy puzzling over finds in Nieuwstad
"“Look, on this shard there is a little man with a glass.” Martin van der Vliet, the glass specialist of the working group, shows a wafer-thin piece of glass on which a figure is etched. The fine lines with a lot of detail reveal that the glass must have been of high quality. “The residents of the Nieuwstad must have been very rich,” thinks coordinator Martin Veen. He bases his assumption on the contents of the cesspit that came to light during the construction of the complex where clients of Syndion live.
Kitchen waste
"It was a cesspit that was probably used specifically from the kitchen of the house, given its composition. There was a huge amount of pottery, porcelain and glass in it. For example, we hardly found any chamber pots and they usually ended up in the cesspits. There were quite a few tests in it,” says Veen, while he points to a small collection of square containers. In one test, glowing coals were placed that were then placed in a stove, a wooden box with holes in the top. Residents used the stove as a foot warmer, a habit that was common in the 17e in 18e century was part of daily life. That is also exactly the period in which the residents of Nieuwstad used the cesspit. “At the end of the 17de century, this must have been dug, because the oldest items date from that period.
Fifty breakfast plates
Furthermore, the finds cover the entire 18de century. Quite a lot was thrown away. And not just because it was broken. We suspect that quite a bit also ended up in the cesspool because the residents were simply fed up with it. For example, we found about fifty breakfast plates. Who has that many plates in their home? Of course, it remains a mystery why they were thrown away. Was someone clumsy and dropped the whole pile, or was the motif out of fashion?”
Crates full of finds that need to be processed.
Halley's Comet
The volunteers dare to say that the residents of Gorcum's inner city were sensitive to trends. Van der Vliet shows a piece of glass on which a kind of sun with a tail has been applied. "This is a fragment of a so-called comet glass. This ornament represents Halley's comet." This appeared in the 17de century (1607 and 1682) in the sky. Glaziers incorporated the comet into their designs. A crystal clear comet and a cobalt blue version emerged from the Gorcum cesspit.
Imitation
Chinese porcelain has also been found, as well as faience, an imitation of Chinese porcelain. “Genuine Chinese was very expensive, because it was difficult to obtain. At that time, the Chinese were not yet trading so intensively with the Netherlands and England. The imitations were cheaper. But the ones we found are of high quality.” It is not yet clear who those wealthy Gorcumers were. Former city archivist AJ Busch is conducting research. “That appears to be a difficult job,” says Veen. Probably just as difficult as the work that awaits the volunteers in sorting and restoring the shards and fragments.
Anja Broeken
October 31, 2009
AD Rivierenland