Category: Publicatie

A new mint for Charlemagne (768-†814)? An investigation into the earliest history of Bruges

Coupland Simon, Meijns Brigitte and De Clercq Wim, « A new mint for Charlemagne (768-†814)? An investigation into the earliest history of Bruges », Revue du Nord, no 451, juillet-décembre 2025, p. 371-394.

ABSTRACT: A denier of Charlemagne discovered at Wijk bij Duurstede in the Netherlands in 2021 bore the previously unrecorded reverse inscription BVR-GES, raising the possibility that this denoted the Belgian city of Bruges. The inclusion of an axe in the reverse design pointed to a northern mint, and other coins with an axe from BONA are here read as BONONIA and attributed to Boulogne, another northern port. This coin, minted before 793, would represent the earliest written reference to Bruges, but
a mid-9th-century text refers to an already established local fortification, and this could have been constructed as part of Charlemagne’s defences along the North Sea coast in the face of Scandinavian raids. It may have been linked to the defence of the royal monastery at nearby Torhout. Archaeological finds from the city and its hinterland can be seen as offering further support to this earlier dating of the settlement, and the topography of the wider region is also consistent with the hypothesis.

 

De Zwinsteden : Een Maritieme Microkosmos in Middeleeuws Vlaanderen

De Clercq, Wim, Jan Trachet, and Maxime Poulain. 2025. “De Zwinsteden : Een Maritieme Microkosmos in Middeleeuws Vlaanderen.” In Wereldsteden van de Lage Landen : Stadsgeschiedenis van Nederland En België, ed by. Nadia Bouras, Jan Hein Furnée, Hilde Greefs, Jelle Haemers, Manon van der Heijden, and Anne-Laure Van Bruaene, 41–48. Amsterdam ; Antwerpen: Atlas Contact.

Wereldsteden van de Lage Landen

Binnenkort ook als audioboek!

At the Apothecary : Life in an International District in 15th-Century Bruges

Poulain, Maxime, Mathijs Speecke, Anton Ervynck, Jan Huyghe, Jan Moens, Marissa Ledger, Eva Vermeersch, Lieselotte Desnerck, An Lentacker, Wim Wouters, Wouter van der Meer, Koen Deforce, Toon De Meester, Nicolas Thomas, Marijn Stolk, Ina Vanden Berghe, Maaike Vandorpe, Alejandra Gutiérrez, Peter Vandenabeele, Wim De Clercq, and Bieke Hillewaert. 2025. “At the Apothecary : Life in an International District in 15th-Century Bruges.” MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY 69 (1): 94–139. doi:10.1080/00766097.2025.2504289.

IN 1996, A CESSPIT was uncovered in the backyard of Bruges’ Spanish nation house. The interdisciplinary study of this old rescue excavation sheds new light on life in the city’s international district between the late 14th and early 16th century. The refuse in the cesspit is what is left of several generations of traders, from a well-to-do apothecary, employing alchemical apparatus in the production of pigments, to Spanish traders documented at the site from the 1480s onwards. This mercantile presence is reflected by an unprecedented array of imported goods, foods, and diseases, ranging from Italian, Spanish and Portuguese ceramics, Near-Eastern glass perfume sprinklers and luxurious silks, to olives, rice and an African parasite. These items give a material dimension to the appeal of Bruges for renowned artists such as Jan van Eyck and spark the debate on the cosmopolitan taste of (non-)local merchants in this international hub of trade.

Available in Open Access.

The palaeoecological conditions of the tidal channel network of the Zwin region (Flanders, Belgium)

Coralie ANDRÉ, Frieda BOGEMANS, Koen SABBE, Bart VAN DE VIJVER, Annelies STORME, Luc ALLEMEERSCH, Wim DE CLERCQ, Jan TRACHET, Maxime POULAIN & Stephen LOUWYE

The palaeoecological conditions of the tidal channel network of the Zwin region (Flanders, Belgium)

Geologica Belgica (Volume 27 (2024) — number 1-2)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20341/gb.2024.007

ABSTRACT:

The northeastern coastal plain of Belgium was a well-developed region during the late medieval period when Bruges and a series of smaller harbours became connected to the North Sea via the Zwin tidal channel. Yet, ecological data related to the evolution of the regional environment of the former Zwin region are still lacking. Diatoms, pollen, and macrobotanical remains have been studied for the first time from two cores drilled in the surroundings of the lost harbour of Hoeke. The sediments in both cores were deposited in four successive tidal channel systems spanning the pre-Roman to late medieval periods. Marine tychoplanktonic and planktonic diatoms were dominant and confirmed the presence of open marine tidal channels, while marine epipsammic diatoms were specific to channel deposits (systems 1 and 4) and marine epipelic diatoms characterised channel and accretion deposits (systems 2 and 3). The sediments of the late medieval Zwin main channel and tributary (system 4) are both characterised by marine tychoplanktonic and epipsammic species. The palynomorphs were typical of marine tidal deposits and (reworked) peat, while macroremains pointed to freshwater plants growing in the vicinity. The palynomorphs (system 4) suggest a more open landscape associated with the extensive reclamation and embankment of the Zwin region. Diatoms in the superjacent tidal deposits indicate that the late medieval Zwin silted up rapidly.

Available in Open Access here!

Paleoparasitological analysis of a 15th–16th c. CE latrine from the merchant quarter of Bruges, Belgium: Evidence for local and exotic parasite infections

New open-acces publication on the northernmost find of S. mansoni and other parasitic infections at the Spanish nation house in Bruges!

Ledger ML, Poulain M, Deforce K. Paleoparasitological analysis of a 15th–16th c. CE latrine from the merchant quarter of Bruges, Belgium: Evidence for local and exotic parasite infections. Parasitology. Published online 2024:1-9. doi:10.1017/S0031182024001100

ABSTRACT: Paleoparasitological studies have made important contributions to our understanding of the past epidemiology of parasites, infection in past populations and lifestyle in the past. In some cases, these ancient parasites can also provide evidence for long distance travel or migration of people in the past. Three sediment samples from a 15th–16th c. CE latrine from the Spanish nation house in Bruges, Belgium were analysed for preserved helminth eggs using microscopy. Bruges was a major trading centre in medieval Europe, thus it was home to a large merchant population with extensive trading networks. Paleoparasitological analysis revealed a preserved parasite egg from Schistosoma mansoni, which causes intestinal schistosomiasis. Roundworm, whipworm, liver fluke and Taenia tapeworm eggs were also found in the latrine which is consistent with parasites previously found in the local population in the medieval period. These new data provide direct evidence for the movement of S. mansoni outside of its endemic area. Today the vast majority of S. mansoni infections occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, with additional endemic areas in the Arabian peninsula and South America. The introduction of S. mansoni into South America is proposed to have occurred relatively recently in human history, as the result of forced movement of people from Africa to the Americas with the Atlantic slave trade. Thus, this infection may have occurred in a merchant who acquired the parasite during trade voyages to Africa or in an individual living in Africa who migrated to Bruges.

Marginal Mounds and Maritime Shepherding. A Landscape Archaeological Survey of a Late Medieval Sheep Mound in the Belgian Coastal Plain

Trachet, J., Poulain, M., de Ruijsscher, D., Saey, T., & De Clercq, W. (2024). Marginal Mounds and Maritime Shepherding. A Landscape Archaeological Survey of a Late Medieval Sheep Mound in the Belgian Coastal Plain. Journal of Wetland Archaeology, 1–30. Open Access, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14732971.2024.2416266

ABSTRACT:

The ‘Scaperie’ site in Knokke-Heist (Belgium), identified through a topographic analysis of a sixteenth-century map and located in a maritime sedimentary environment, serves as the focal point for this research. Employing a landscape archaeological approach, this study integrates multiple data sources including ceramics, historical maps, aerial photographs, LiDAR-data, geophysical surveys, and a coring survey. The dataset revealed the remnants of a anthropogenic sheep mound, evidenced by a localised microtopographic elevation, subsoil anomalies and surface artifacts associated with dairy production. More generally, this paper contributes to the understanding of the dynamic interplay between humans, sheep, and the coastal environment, offering new insights into historic land use and the archaeological characteristics of coastal mounded features. The study introduces a tripartite pattern of spatial organisation of animal husbandry, encompassing parent farms, droveways and satellite dwelling mounds. Encroached by the advancing embankments, this sheep-related taskscape was gradually marginalised both socio-economically and spatially.

Fuelling the blacksmiths furnace: a multidisciplinary study into the use of ‘smithy’ coal in the iron-working industry of a late medieval harbour system, Bruges (Belgium)

Paulina, B., Wim, D. C., Elisa, B., Patrick, B., Duncan, M. L., Rick, H., Maxime, P., Jan, T., Stijn, D., & Johan, D. G. (2024). Fuelling the blacksmiths furnace: a multidisciplinary study into the use of ‘smithy’ coal in the iron-working industry of a late medieval harbour system, Bruges (Belgium). Archaeometry, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.13036

ABSTRACT:
Large amounts of iron slag were discovered during archaeological excavations in the late medieval harbour of Hoeke (Municipality of Damme, Belgium), one of the main outer harbours of Bruges. This waste product indicates the presence of 13th- to 14th-century pre-industrial metalworking activities, such as blacksmithing, which involved the production of iron objects and the repair of ships, as historically documented on this site. Besides the waste products from iron working, fragments of coal were also discovered within the same deposits, both as separate pieces and included in the slags, suggesting that coal was used as a fuel during these activities. This discovery resulted in a multidisciplinary study applying geochemical, palaeontological, and historical analyses that allowed to identify the provenance of the coal (Northumberland-Durham Coalfield) as well as to provide new insights into maritime coal trade during this period. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of pre-industrial craft practices in the Bruges harbour system and expands the knowledge of the fuel sources used in the late medieval harbour’s iron-working activities.