Rare centuries-old bone floor uncovered at building in the Netherlands. See the find
Renovations of a medieval building in the Netherlands revealed a very rare find: a floor made of bones, officials said.
From the outside, the building in downtown Alkmaar looks worn and unoccupied but relatively well-kept. It seems to fit in with its surroundings on the narrow cobblestone street, not unique yet not ugly.
But looks can be deceiving.
Archaeologists visited the building during its renovation and uncovered an older tile layer under the existing flooring, the Alkmaar municipality said in a Dec. 13 news release. As they worked, a patch of old flooring near the door caught their attention.
The floor in this section had been filled in with cattle bones, officials said. The bones all came from the animal’s legs and had been cut into standard-size pieces then arranged in a pattern.
The city’s heritage department shared photos of the bone floor in a Dec. 13 Facebook post. The neat rows of bone pieces almost look like beads.
Archaeologists described the centuries-old bone flooring as mysterious and very rare, a type of flooring known only from a northern region of the Netherlands.
“We were very happy to have the opportunity to see this bone floor with our own eyes,” archaeologist Nancy de Jong said in the release, according to a translation from the NL Times, a news outlet in the Netherlands.
“The floor tiles were worn down from intense use, and it is possible that the bones were placed there either for practical or symbolic reasons,” de Jong said, per the NL Times. “They may have fit well with the craft being practiced in this space, or they could have been an inexpensive way to complete the floor.”
Archaeologists don’t know the exact age of the bone floor found in Alkmaar but, based on similar finds, they suspect it comes from the 15th century, officials said. The floor and foundation underneath may pre-date the current structure, built in 1609.
Alkmaar is a city in the northwestern part of the Netherlands and a roughly 25-mile drive north from Amsterdam.
Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the Alkmaar municipality and Facebook post from the city’s heritage department.
This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Rare centuries-old bone floor uncovered at building in the Netherlands. See the find."
