Urban farming and ruralisation in the Netherlands (1250-1850). NAR 068

Urban farming and ruralisation in the Netherlands (1250-1850). NAR 068.  Unraveling farming practice and the use of (open) space by synthesising archaeological reports using text mining 

A. Fischer, H. van Londen, A Blonk-van den Bercken, R. Visser and J. Renes

Hardcover, 261 pp. Rijk geïllustreerd. Nerderlandse Archeologische Rapporten 068 RCE 2021

Historic towns were certainly not only urban, farming belonged to urban life. This volume curveys twenty years of commercial archaeological research in the Netherlands and presents evidence for a range of urban farming activities in the years between 1250 and 1850. Much relates to household activities, and it is clear that different kinds of urban farming contributed to a degree of selfreliance for man y town dwellers. Athough the evidence combined for the first time in this volume is fragmented, the body of new data that has been assembled from seemingly unspectular contexts in backyards and urban fringes demonstrates the power that urban archaeology has to shine a light into everyday lives and household activities in the past.