GORINCHEM – The first results of the monastic work that the volunteers of the Archeological Working Group Gorinchem have done, can be seen from Friday in the city hall. Tomorrow evening the official opening of the exhibition 'Treasures' will take place, which gives an impression of what happened to finds after they emerged from the Gorcum soil.
Martin Veen and Ina Heerspink have put together the exhibition. Many finds come from the Barracks Square where the archaeological working group excavated a year ago at the Huis Paffenrode that was built at the end of the sixteenth century by city pensioner Mr. Adriaen van Weresteyn. But also found treasures of the Happy Corner, Pig market are on display. In one of the display cases are skulls of a horse, a goat, a dog and a human, who lived in the sixteenth century. "A large part of the bones and skulls that we found on the Varkenmarkt are still in an anatomical laboratory in Leiden for research. It is striking that we first thought that they were the bones of monks who lived in the monastery that was demolished in 1578. There also appear to be bones of women and children among them, which indicates that the monastery functioned as a hospital for the sick," says Veen. These findings are just a tip of the historical veil. “If we wanted to inventory and preserve everything we found on the Kazerneplein alone, we would have to work for a year. We don’t have that much time. Everything is done on a voluntary basis. For example, in the display case with glass objects there is a small bottle that took at least eighty hours of work and it is not even completely finished. The pieces were glued together using a hypodermic needle,” says Veen.
''Schatten' can be viewed until September 21 from Monday to Thursday (10.00:17.00 AM - 10.00:12.00 PM) and Friday (XNUMX:XNUMX AM - XNUMX:XNUMX PM) on the first floor of the town hall at Stadhuisplein.
September 2, 1998
The Dordrecht resident