Balensteeg 18 – 24 (2004)

In September 2004, by Hollandia Archaeologists a study was carried out at Balensteeg 18-24. During demolition work on the site, old wall remains were discovered under the foundations of the former buildings Balensteeg 18 to 24.

The demolition crews assumed that the walls were quay walls and that they had possibly found a small harbour. It was decided to carry out an excavation to gain insight into the nature of the traces present.

Footprints of humans and cattle were found in the raised layers.

The map through From Deventer from around 1560 is the oldest image that shows the current Balensteeg. Together with the current Keizerstraat and Havendijk, a residential block was formed with vacant land in the middle and on the east side. In this period, there was already construction on the Balensteeg. However, the houses are indicated schematically, which makes further statements about this difficult.

Detail map Jacob van Deventer 1558

On the map of Blue (1652) the habitation is more clearly shown. The houses have a first floor and an attic in addition to the ground floor.

Detail map Joan Blaeu 1652

The cadastral minute of 1832 shows no buildings on our terrain. The 19th century traces of habitation that were found will therefore belong to buildings that were constructed after this map was made.

Detail cadastral minute 1832

Heavy walls

The archaeological remains can be divided into five phases. The first phase is characterised by raised layers. The ground was probably raised several times from the 14th century onwards. At a depth of 4,5 m below ground level (2,16 m below NAP) we find the naturally deposited grey clay on which the first raised layer lies. It is a brown humus peaty layer. The second phase begins with the construction of a rectangular building. The foundation has an estimated width of 1,4 m. Such a heavy foundation suggests that this is a large and probably high building. The foundation was found on the north, east and south sides of the plot. The boundary of the building was not observed on the west side. After the construction of the walls, the inside of the building was raised with grey clay. The finds from this phase include a remarkably large number of 14th-century grey-fired pottery, including a lot of waste from potteries.

Reconstruction of a horse mill

Oil mill

In the third phase the entire site was raised with clean grey clay. Few building remains from this phase indicate a continued residential/work function of the site. Remains of a large round paved structure can be interpreted as part of a oil mill (horse mill). Among the finds of this phase was a fragment of a glass oven. Historically, it is known that a glassworks was located in the nearby Keizerstraat. The fourth phase is formed by a period in which the site was fallow. There are no houses on the cadastral minute of 1832.

Traces of disappeared buildings on the old garden wall

In the course of the 19th century, the site was divided up and small houses were built on it. The division could still be read from the traces of construction in the garden wall on the south side of the site. This wall was the rear facade of a number of houses in the second half of the 19th century. Most traces from this last phase disappeared during the demolition work.