Netherlands

In the second half of the 20th century, physical anthropological research was mainly performed at the ‘Institute of Anthropobiology’ (the Huizinga Institute, which was part of the medical faculty in Utrecht) until it closed down at the beginning of the 1990s. Archaeologists have however increasingly recognized the importance of physical anthropological research in recent decades. The field attracts a growing number of students, and the interest of the media and the general public has increased enormously in the last ten years. Nowadays it is a normal procedure that skeletal material is properly excavated, documented and investigated. The examination of cremated remains has also become a standard part of archaeological projects. Physical anthropology is included in the archaeological and forensic educational curricula at

the universities of Leiden and Amsterdam. The amount of physical anthropological research and the institutional incorporation is restricted. A reason for this is the scarcity of human skeletal remains, especially from prehistoric periods, due to the poor state of preservation caused by the Dutch soil. Better preserved and more abundant are skeletal remains from historical periods. Many Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman cemeteries with cremation burials have been excavated. Graves from various periods are addressed in a handbook on Dutch archaeology by Louwe

Kooijmans et al. (2005). Archaeological excavations have grown exponentially in the last 15 years, thus leading to the discovery of several Mesolithic and Neolithic sites with human skeletal remains. The late Mesolithic sites at Hardinxveld-Giessendam have yielded burials and scattered

human bones (Smits and Louwe Kooijmans 2001; Louwe Kooijmans and Smits 2001). Cemeteries and isolated human bones have been recovered from the middle Neolithic sites of Ypenburg (Baetsen 2008) and Schipluiden (Smits and Louwe Kooijmans 2006). Much of the research is incorporated in state-funded research programmes, as well as through

commercial archaeological projects. Physical-anthropological research focuses on the demographic size and composition, health, composition of the diet, the heterogeneity of the different burial populations by means of isotope research, and the variety of traditions in the burial ritual (e.g., a NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) funded project entitled: ‘From Hardinxveld to Noord-Hoorn’; see Smits et al. 2010; Smits and van der Plicht

2009). Early Mediaeval research is incorporated in the NWO-funded Servatius project of the Amsterdam Archaeological Centre (AAC). Large skeletal series from Maastricht are under investigation. Several dissertations have been published in which physical-anthropological and archaeological

data have been integrated. Examples include studies of Bronze Age burial mounds (Lohof 1991; Theunissen 1999). The investigation of a few thousand cremation burials originating from four Roman cemeteries forms the topic of the NWO-funded research (Smits 2006). Central theme in this dissertation is the physical-anthropological study of four burial populations from the northern frontier region of Germania Inferior dating from the first to the third centuries AD. Cemeteries with cremation graves from the Iron Age and Roman period in the southern Netherlands have been published by Hiddink (2003); while the dissertation of Panhuysen (2005) presents the physical-anthropological results of two populations from early mediaeval Maastricht. Collections from later periods include several large post-mediaeval series dating mainly from

the 17th and 18th centuries. These are usually skeletons from churches and churchyards, such as those deriving from Pieterskerk in Leiden (Maat 1982), Broerekerk in Zwolle (Clevis and Constandse-Westermann 1992), St Laurens in Alkmaar (Baetsen 2001) and s-Hertogenbosch (Maat et al. 2002). Universities in Amsterdam, Leiden and Groningen offer Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes

in Archaeology. Courses in physical anthropology are provided by the Universities of Leiden and Amsterdam. Forensic anthropology is included in the Master in Forensic Science degree at the University of Amsterdam. Since 1983 the Dutch Association of Physical Anthropology (Nederlandse Vereniging voor

Fysische Antropologie or NVFA) aims to promote knowledge of the physical anthropology and to encourage and coordinate activities in this area. The association has about 60 members. A great diversity of specializations exists between the members of the group and includes specialists in forensic anthropology, evolutionary biology, osteoarchaeology, and growth and development. Several meetings, lectures and excursions are organized every year and further information on the history and development of Dutch physical anthropology can be found in its newsletter.