ABSTRACT
The Netherlands developed a tradition of applying ecological research to archaeology. In view of the fact that at least 40% of the total surface of the Netherlands is presently below sea level, it need surprise no one that the country has an old tradition of wet site archaeology, perhaps one of the oldest in the world. In the eastern part of the country, wet sites dating to the Pleistocene are located above mean sea level in bogs on the sandy soils left after the Ice Ages. The Assendelver Polder Project is a regional one, aimed at reconstructing the natural and cultural dynamics occurring in part of a coastal estuary, the Oer-IJ Estuary, from prehistoric times well into the Middle Ages. Fundamental for the research design was that the area in which work was undertaken was defined arbitrarily, that is, not on grounds inherent in the archaeological data themselves.
