Resurfacing the submerged past

Dr Hans Peeters is associate professor at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen. He obtained his PhD from the University of Amsterdam. As a specialist in the archaeology of hunter-gatherers and early farmers, he worked at the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency from 1997 till 2009, and was involved in various projects, notably in Flevoland. In his work, he focusses on the relationship between landscape dynamics and hunter-gatherer behaviour.

Dr Laura Immy Kooistra is senior researcher archaeobotany and one of the founders of BIAX Consult, Biological Archaeology and Environmental Reconstruction. She studied biology at the Leiden University where she was educated in palaeoetnobotany and palynology. In 1996 she obtained her PhD with the thesis Borderland Farming. Possibilities and limitations of farming in the Roman Period and Early Middle Ages between Rhine and Meuse. Besides business as usual she is interested in subjects concerning the history and development of the environment, and the use of it by hunter-gatherers and farmers from prehistoric times till the early middle ages in the Netherlands. Another main issue is the provenance of food for the Roman army in the Rhine delta.

Prof. Dr. Daan Raemaekers is full professor of archaeology of northwestern Europe at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen. He obtained his PhD on the role of the Swifterbant culture in the transition to farming in northwestern Europe from Leiden University in 1999. In the period 1998-2002, he worked as project manager at RAAP Archaeological Consultancy and was involved in numerous developer-led projects in the province of Flevoland. He was appointed full professor at the University of Groningen in 2002.

Dr Bjørn Ivar Smit is senior researcher archaeology at Cultural heritage Agency of the Netherlands. He studied and obtained his PhD at the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Groningen and has worked for one of the larger archaeological companies (RAAP Archaeological Consultancy) in the Netherlands. His work at the Cultural Heritage Agency at is directed at the archaeological heritage management in the Netherlands. He focusses on early prehistory, palaeogeography and palaoelandscapes, drowned landscapes, predictive modelling, general heritage management/legislation on- and off shore and the formulation of knowledge strategies for the Cultural Heritage Agency.

Dr Karen Waugh ( 2019) was co-director of Vestigia Archaeology and Cultural History Ltd. She received a PhD from the University of Durham (UK) in 1999. As a Roman pottery specialist she worked in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. From 1995 until 2002 she worked as a project manager Archaeology at the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency on the Betuweroute and HSL-Zuid infrastructural projects. From 2002 until 2019 she continued managing large-scale archaeological projects involving Vestigia, Hanzelijn being the most time consuming of these. Karen was also very active in promoting professional standards and international cooperation between archaeologists. In 2017 she was elected secretary of the Executive Board of the European Association of Archaeologists, a position see fulfilled until her untimely death in the summer of 2019.