Traces of 5,000-year-old settlement found at Dutch parking lot

By Janene Pieters on March 16, 2016 - 13:08
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Demolition starts at Leidsenhage shopping center in Leischendam-Voorburg, 15 Mar 2016 (Photo: @Ton_Overmeire/Twitter). (Demolition starts at Leidsenhage shopping center in Leischendam-Voorburg, 15 Mar 2016 (Photo: @Ton_Overmeire/Twitter))

Next week archaeologists will start digging at a parking lot in Leidschendam. They believe that a 5 thousand year old settlement - a settlement from the Stone Age - is hidden beneath this parking lot, AD reports.

The parking lot is located at the Leidsenhage shopping center between Burgemeester Banninglaan and Berberis.

"We hope to find ground tracks of the entire settlement from 3000 BC", project leader Andre Kerkhoven said to the newspaper. "Then we'll really have something beautiful in hand."

A previous study showed that some archaeological discoveries can be made underneath the parking lot, which is set to be demolished as part of a renovation at the shopping center. "Our research is nicely integrated into the demolition and renovation process", Kerkhoven said. "We are in nobody's way."

A total of 12 archaeologists will be working on the project, six of them in the ground under the car park. They expect the excavation to take about 5 weeks.

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