U Staat Hier (75) - Schokland NL - 'You Are Here' Maps on Waymarking.com

"Once, Schokland lay in the middle of the raging Zuiderzee, which swept away large parts of the island. Despite the threatening water and poverty, people lived there. From prehistoric times and the Middle Ages up to the present.

These people left all kinds of traces behind, which you can find especially in the soil of Schokland. These traces are so old - sometimes thousands of years - that we call them archaeological soil treasures. Archaeology is the science that studies the remains of ancient cultures. This allows us to take a look into the past, how people lived then.

Fortunately, the soil treasures of Schokland are well preserved. In the rich soil you can still find many remains of hunter-gatherers and farmers who lived along the rivers. By the way, until about 1450 Schokland was not an island but a swampy peat bog with some dry hills here and there. Probably the whole area around Schokland had already been prepared for agriculture before the fourteenth century. When the rising water swept away large pieces of peat land, it became a peninsula. Schokland only became a real island when the Zuiderzee swallowed up the last part.

People already lived on Schokland 12,000 years ago. They lived as hunter-gatherers and fishermen. In the Middle Ages (500 to 1500 AD), it was mainly farmers who raised cattle and cultivated grain. From the 12th century onwards, the inhabitants lived on man-made mounds: Zuidpunt, Zuidert, Middelbuurt and Emmeloord. These mounds were the only safe places on the island during high tide or a storm surge. In the 17th century, agriculture declined due to the loss of land to the sea. Then trade, shipping and especially fishing became more and more important.

In 1859, the islanders lose the battle against the water for good.... The government decides that the inhabitants must leave the island. Not only because of the permanent danger of floods but also because of poverty. The approximately 635 'Schokkers' move to the mainland. Schokland continued to exist but became an island on dry land in 1942 with the impoldering of the Noordoostpolder.

And so a unique place was created: the Schokland World Heritage Site. An archaeological monument in the polder, with traces of human presence up to 10,000 years ago."

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Location Name: Parking Schokland, The Netherlands.

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