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Medieval Ceramics: Journal of the Medieval Ceramics Research Group, 34, 1-18, In 1448, the already highly urbanised region around Aardenburg, Damme and Sluis witnessed the founding of a new city, Middelburg-in-Flanders. The thriving start, that characterised this city, soon came to an end. With the outbreak of religious troubles in the second half of the 16th century, the city was located in the frontline of the Spanish-Dutch war. This article examines the ceramics of two garderobe chutes from the lower court of the castle, unearthed during the archaeological excavations of 2004. The analysis of these assemblages raises some questions on the consumption of ceramics outside normal market patterns and political control.

De Canon van Vlaanderen presenteert personen, plaatsen, uitvindingen, teksten, gebeurtenissen en ontwikkelingen met een bijzondere betekenis voor de Vlaamse samenleving van vandaag. 60 rijkelijk geïllustreerde vensters belichten beslissende momenten uit de geschiedenis vanaf de allervroegste bewoning tot nu. De lezer ontmoet behalve bekende helden en schurken ook gewone mensen die hier, bij voorspoed en tegenslag, een bestaan hebben opgebouwd. Dit boek werd samengesteld door een commissie van deskundigen na overleg met onderzoekers, onderwijsspecialisten en andere experts. De Canon van Vlaanderen is niet in stenen tafelen gegrift, maar nodigt de lezer uit om het verleden te (her)ontdekken. Hij is er voor jong en oud, voor nieuwkomers en stamgasten, voor avonturiers en huismussen, kortom, voor iedereen die de regio die we vandaag Vlaanderen noemen, beter wil leren kennen.

Prior to the construction of a highABSTRACT-speed railway track (TGV) between Antwerp (Belgium) and the Dutch border, archaeological and geoarchaeological research was conducted at several archaeological sites. All are situated in the northern Campine, a region characterised by quartz-rich, nutrient-poor cover sands. On the site of Brecht-Zoegweg, two well preserved deepened byres (‘potstallen’) were uncovered in Roman stable-houses. Stables with sunken floors are commonly recorded on Roman-period farms in the sandy part of northern Belgium. Following medieval to sub-recent parallels in the area, they are considered to be features serving agricultural fertilising purposes through the intentional accumulation of dung and the creation of manure by mixing with added organic matter (sods or ‘plaggen’). This archaeopedological research investigates several questions concerning the origin and the infill process of these remarkable features. Field observations, analytical and micromorphological data point to a gradual succession of events leading to a byre with a sunken floor, rather than an intentional digging out of the floor concomitant with the house construction and a post-occupational filling or levelling. It is furthermore suggested that plaggen fertilisation could indeed have been applied, at least in some of the phases of the byre use., This article is part of a book edited at the occasion of the Geoarchaeological meeting of Bruges: Soils as records of Past and Present: the geoarchaeological approach. Focus on: is there time for fieldwork today? - Bruges (Belgium), 6 and 7.11.2019. Editors Judit Deák, Carole Ampe and Jari Hinsch Mikkelsen Technical editor Mariebelle Deceuninck English language reviewer Caroline Landsheere Graphic design Frederick Moyaert Printing and binding Die Keure, Bruges

For some years, a French-Belgian team of archaeologists and geologists is investigating the provenance of ancient quern-stones and millstones. Their study revealed the frequent occurrence of particular coarse sandstones derived from Lower Devonian strata in the Ardenne region, known as either the textquotedblleftArkose of Haybestextquotedblright by geologists or the textquotedblleftArkose of Macquenoisetextquotedblright by archaeologists. Material for Late Iron Age and Roman quern-stones and millstones was quarried from open pits located west of the border between France and Belgium, between the Belgian village of Macquenoise (Commune of Momignies, Province of Hainaut) and the French town of Hirson (Aisne Department, Hauts-de-France region). This paper describes the raw materials, presents the different types of grindstones produced through historical times and provides a detailed diffusion map of the millstones.

The Counts of Flanders were among the most powerful and respected medieval sovereigns in Western Europe, despite the rather humble size of the territory they controlled. A large population, a highly-productive agriculture and abundant cities with international trade connections are mostly cited as the reasons behind their economic, political and military success. However, how this triangulation came into being is still poorly understood. The roots of the count’s economic might lay in the Early Middle Ages, a period when certain transformations gradually shaped a structure which would determine rural Flanders for centuries to come. The Merovingian period is both culturally and economically defined by its relatively regional scope, smaller scale and inter-site variation. Furthermore, the eight century can be seen as a period of transition, giving way to a more homogenous system in the Carolingian period, characterized by a shared material culture and a more focused approach to rural settlement and agriculture. The emergence of a new house type able to stock large harvests and the increasing structuring of the farmstead and the landscape are but some of the archaeological markers of this new socio-economic system with surplus-extraction at its core. This transition is not unique for Flanders, as ‘the long eight century’ is being recognized in different parts of Western Europe. The swift taking over of Carolingian power by the first Counts of Flanders during the later 9th and 10th century should thus not only be explained by royal weakness, but also by the fact that these first counts could depend upon a robust economic structure for which the seeds were sown some hundred to two hundred years earlier. Easier than elsewhere, they could step into the void left by the Carolingian kings, and reap the fruits of labour.