Commercial Late Medieval bog peat exploitation in the Low Countries: a rare example from the Monnikenberg (Hilversum, the Netherlands)

The ‘Monnikenven’ is a former, isolated peat bog in the Pleistocene sand landscape near Hilversum (Central Netherlands), During works aiming at restoration of the original mire, a very regular pattern of peat extraction pits was discovered, covering the whole former bog. The pits were separated by vertical, sharply cut, narrow in situ walls, composed of residual bog deposits. Datings by Optical Stimulated Luminescence analysis (osl) of pit fills and local drift sand covering these fills showed that this peat exploitation took place in the second half of the fifteenth century a.d. It can be linked to the illegal turf trade by local farmers in the Marke Gooi, described in historical court records (1464). These results confirm and specify the earlier tentative dating by Sevink and Van Geel (2017), which was based on palynological evidence. Hitherto, for the Pleistocene sand landscapes of the Netherlands, such well-organised, late medieval commercial peat exploitation has not been described, but the results suggest that such early exploitation may have played a wider role in the origin of current perched-aquifer fens in the Netherlands.