Archaeological features and absolute dating of historical road tracks in the North-western European Sand Belt. An interdisciplinary case study of a late medieval and early modern trade route at the Hoge Veluwe National Park (Central Netherlands)

It is very difficult to obtain absolute historical datings of road features found at archaeological excavations. Nevertheless, various physical dating methods are developed for this purpose, including Optical Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). After a small-scale archaeological campaign, samples from a medieval trading route in the Veluwe area (Central Netherlands) on sandy soils have been dated with OSL, in order to compare these with archaeological and historical data of the same route. The absolute datings of four wheel tracks of this so-called Harderwijkerweg appeared to correspond largely wit... Mehr ...