16th International Symposium on Boat & Ship Archaeology

81 Zadar, Croatia | 26 September – 1 October 2021 André van Holk 1 & Alice Overmeer 2 1 Batavialand, Lelystad, the Netherlands 2 independent researcher, the Netherlands Waste disposal in the Netherlands as reflected in shipwrecks of the former Zuiderzee The province of Flevoland in the Netherlands is known as the largest graveyard of shipwrecks on land in the world. In this province, which is reclaimed from the Zuiderzee between 1942 and 1968, over 450 shipwrecks have been found, during the drainage and cultivation of the land. Of all these shipwrecks, a total of nine could be identified as vessels carrying a cargo of waste. Only one dated from the second quarter of the 17 th century; the other eight wrecks all date to from the 19 th century. One of these wrecks was found in 1973 at lot ZP 5/6, when a drainage ditch was further expanded. It was partially excavated in 1982, but was back in the spotlights in 2019 as part of a training project for students and volunteers in archaeology. It was an 18 m-long barge-like vessel, loaded with a cargo that at first sight seemed to be household waste. However, analysis of the composition of the cargo showed a completely different picture. The XRF spectrometer measured a high percentage of lead, but zero phosphate. The larger components were mainly coal and slag, and only 4% consisted of archaeological material as pottery, glass, bone and leather. This is not the typical household waste, but rather resembles waste from light industries. This may shift the prevailing picture of waste disposal and transport in the Netherlands. On the one hand there were the heavily urbanized parts of the western Netherlands which struggled with their surplus of waste (mainly human excrements, farmyard manure, street waste, waste from cesspits, hearth ash and waste from agricultural products). On the other hand, there were agricultural ar- eas, especially poor sandy soils and the exploited peat areas in the North, which were in need of manure. The only way those bulk cargoes of manure could be profitably transported was by ship. In this paper we will explain the different cargo composition of the waste transporters found in the Netherlands, and look into the historical context of waste disposal and transport. The ship at lot ZP 5/6 and its cargo will play an ex- plicit role in this.