The Netherlands: remains of 3.600 year old sauna found

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The Living Force
Source: 3,600-year-old sauna found in Nijmegen; Unique on mainland Europe

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The site near Waalsprong in Nijmegen where a 3,600-year-old sauna was found - Credit: Gemeente Nijmegen / Gemeente Nijmegen - License: All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, 28 September 2022 - 13:15
3,600-year-old sauna found in Nijmegen; Unique on mainland Europe

Researchers found a 3,600-year-old sauna with sweat lodges and cold water baths during work in the Waalsprong in Nijmegen-Noord. “That is unique for mainland Europe,” the municipality of Nijmegen said on Wednesday. Such early saunas in Europe were previously only found in Great Britain and Ireland.

The sauna was set up in a clearing in an oak forest next to a residual river channel. Unlike similar sites in Great Britain and Ireland, the people here did not only use hot stones for their sauna but primarily hot clay balls. That has everything to do with the location, according to the researchers. “Nijmegen -Noord is located on the Betuwe clay silts. Large stones could only be found miles to the south.”

The researchers also found a grinding stone in the river bed with a bronze dagger - a site for sacrificial rites common in the Bronze age - as well as pottery shards, a bronze ax fragment, animal remains, and worked flint.

According to the municipality, the big question is who used this sauna. “Were they the families in the area whose farms we know? Or, given the great rarity of prehistoric saunas in our region, should we rather think of religious specialists from a much wider area?”

Nijmegen is building a lot of housing in the Waalsprong area. The remains of the sauna were already found some 20 years ago during preparations for housing construction, but the Municipal Archaeological Service only recently identified it for what it was.
 
@The Mechanic: thanks for sharing but I had already consulted that page before posting. It's almost identical to the NLTimes article. The only interesting other thing was this:
An extensive article about the research will appear in the magazine Archaeology in the Netherlands at the end of September. The research report will be published later this year in the municipal series Archeologische Berichten Nijmegen.
I immediately searched for both items but found nothing yet. Will have to repeat the search in about a couple of weeks, I presume.
 
And then there is this (see the link that @The Mechanic posted):
Other finds at the site include pottery shards, a bronze axe fragment, animal remains and worked Flint. Compared to finds of settlements of the Bronze Age, they are strikingly few. Special is the discovery of hoof tracks, possibly from sacrificial animals. (Translated by Yandex.)
Was it a religious site where they sacrificed animals? I think it's interesting that NLTimes has skipped that bit, although the Nijmegen website calls these possibly sacrificial animal finds 'special'.
 
I think it's interesting that NLTimes has skipped that bit, although the Nijmegen website calls these possibly sacrificial animal finds 'special'.
I don't think they skipped that bit but only worded it differently:
The researchers also found a grinding stone in the river bed with a bronze dagger - a site for sacrificial rites common in the Bronze age - as well as pottery shards, a bronze ax fragment, animal remains, and worked flint.
Only the hoof tracks aren't mentioned as such.
 
There's a longer article about it in NRC (in Dutch again) here: Onderzoeker treft 3.600 jaar oude sauna in Nijmegen: ‘Meest raadselachtige vindplaats ooit’

Translation by google translate and corrected a little bit:

Researcher finds 3,600-year-old sauna in Nijmegen: 'Most enigmatic site ever'​


Archeology

Never before has such a Bronze Age seaside resort been found on the mainland of northwestern Europe, says chief archaeologist Peter van den Broeke.​

Lotje van den Dungen 28 september 2022

For twenty years it was not clear to researchers what exactly the archaeological find in Nijmegen was supposed to represent. The remains were found during the preparations for the construction of a new residential area on the north side of the Waal in 2001. After extensive research, the site turns out to be a sauna from the Middle Bronze Age, about 3,600 years ago, the municipality of Nijmegen said on Wednesday.

A very rare find: “Such early bathing places have never been found on the mainland of northwestern Europe,” says archaeologist and lead researcher Peter van den Broeke (70). According to Van den Broeke, Nijmegen is now a 'hotspot' for archaeological finds, but especially for those from Roman times, roughly two thousand years ago.

The fieldwork was done in 2001 and 2003. Only in the past three years – a residential area has now been built on the site – has Van den Broeke retrieved the photos of the research, after his retirement. “It's the most puzzling site I've ever worked on,” he says. The discovery started with a thick layer of fuel waste from mainly burnt clay spheres. They were fired and placed under a bath to heat the water. Or water was poured over it to create steam, as is done with stones in contemporary saunas.

After some digging, several water pits were also found, which may have been cold and warm water baths, for example. Similar places from that time have only been found in Northern Ireland and Scotland, explains Van den Broeke. There they used to use hot stones to heat the baths, not clay balls. “There are no large stones near Nijmegen. That is why they must have used spheres of loam and clay.”

Not a single grain of wheat​


Van den Broeke is very confident of his conclusions, which are expected to be published later this year. There can be no question of an ancient settlement or kitchen: there were hardly any shards or food remains at the location, many of which are always found at settlement sites. “We had the charred material analyzed in a lab. Not a single grain of wheat was found among them.”

The bathing place stood in a clearing in an oak forest. In the arm of the river next to the location a millstone was found with a bronze dagger. This points to a well-known sacrifice ritual with precious objects from the Bronze Age, something that, according to the researchers, also took place there. The big question remains who used the bathhouse all those centuries ago. This could be families from the area, or – given the rarity of the place – religious people from a much wider area.
 
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