In this chapter, the numerous rural settlements in the vicinity of the Roman town in Voorburg will be discussed, as well as the habitation history and possible origin of the inhabitants of the area. The chapter concludes with an overview of the rural community in the area.

INTRODUCTION

The subject of this section is rural habitation in the Cananefatian civitas from c. 250 BC to the middle of the 4th century. This period of six centuries is characterised by a dynamic intensity in the degree of habitation in the research area. In the Late Iron Age, it concerns relatively many sites, dispersed over the landscape. However, at the end of the Iron Age, in the course of the 1st century BC, the habitation declines to such an extent that it is hardly traceable in the archaeological record. Clearly demonstrable traces of habitation are present only around 50 AD in the research area. The degree of habitation increases further in the following century, but it slowly decreases at the end of the 2nd or beginning of the 3rd century. Most sites were abandoned by the second half of the 3rd century. This process continues until the beginning of the 4th century. Thereafter, habitation occurs sporadically in the area, but seems to disappear again around the middle of the 4th century. Only after about a century and a half are there any clear traces of habitation in the research area.

THE LATE IRONAGE ( 2 5 0 B C – 1 A D )

In the Late Iron Age, settlements were dispersed across the research area. In general, settlements consisted of one farmstead and seem to have a permanent character. They were only abandoned when the environmetal conditions prevented further habitation. Clear concentrations of sites are known in a few places, such as along the Lower Rhine, on the beach ridges near The Hague, and in the clay-on-bog area of Midden Delfland and Vlaardingen/Schiedam. Local environmental factors strongly influenced the habitation of these areas (see chapter 2). Van Heeringen posits that “…the coastal region was inhabited by groups of people whose essentially self-sufficient economy was based largely on agriculture. These people lived in scattered settlements, each comprising of a single farmstead.” .