R.M. van Heeringen

Duizend jaar oude bergen aan de Zeeuwse kust

Historisch geografisch tijdschrift 25 (2007) 97 - 106.

Een van de kwaliteiten van het Zeeuwse landschap zijn de zogenaamde vliedbergen, eeuwenoude bergjes die al vele generaties oudheidkundigen hebben geïntrigeerd. De historische overlevering over hun oorspronkelijke functie was verloren gegaan en hun uiterlijk gaf aanleiding tot allerlei theorieën over ouderdom en gebruik. Dat 1000 jaar geleden houten kastelen op de bergjes hebben gestaan, is aan weinig mensen bekend. In 2007 heeft de RACM een beeldcatalogus gemaakt die een inspiratiebron beoogt te zijn voor het beheer van de bergjes als uniek cultuurhistorisch erfgoed. In dit artikel bekijken we de geschiedenis van het onderzoek naar deze bergjes, alsmede de huidige inzichten.

Castle mounds from thousand years ago in the coastal area of Zeeland

Hard building material has always been scarce in the coastal areas of Zeeland and Flanders. Before the introduction of brick, people had tot make do with 'poles, earth and sods'. Despite the use of such perishable building materials, Zeeland is in fact blessed with two groups of visible earthen monuments that are known well beyond the borders of the province: five Viking circular fortresses from the final quarter of the 9th century and the remains of nearly forty timber castles from the 11th - 13th century.

The cultural-historical monuments belonging to the last mentioned group of 'proto motte-and-bailey' castles are referred to in traditional Zeeland parlance as vliedbergen or bergjes (literally, 'refuge mounds' or 'small hills'). Since the 19th century the numerous small, bare mounds that have been a feature of the Zeeland landscape since time immemorial, have fascinated many generations of folklorists, antiquarians, historians, historical geographers and archaeologists. They have been actively committed to the fate of the bergjes in the province of Zeeland. Interest in the 'secret' of the bergjes assumed initially the shape of romantic theories, evolving via surveying, assessment and rescue excavations to - ultimately - protection and active management. The early interest in the bergjes could not prevent the loss of an estimated 70 - 80 % of the original number that therefore bear no witness anymore to the feudal gentleman farmers who, a thousand years ago, were 'king of the castle' in their own domains in the flat landscape of the Zeeland coastal area. Statutory protection and protection of the still existing mottes by careful environmental planning alone cannot halt the insidious erosion of these archaeological monuments. To properly conserve earthen monuments, we first of all need to know their current condition. In the case of the Zeeland bergjes, the morphology of the mound itself and the sometimes visible remains of a moat or a courtyard (bailey) play a key role. The growing interest in active management and the merger in 2006 of the National Service for Archaeological Heritage and the Netherlands Department for Conservation into the National Service for Archaeology, Cultural Landscape and Built Monuments (RACM) provided the incentive to compose an elaborate survey of the morphology of the bergjes. The report is intended as a source of inspiration for activities designed to make the bergjes - a unique part of our cultural heritage - accessible, and to manage them properly in the future.