Aanloop Molengat - Maritime archaeology and intermediate trade during the Thirty Years War

In 1635 or shortly thereafter, a Dutch ship was laden with all sorts of materials and products, mostly metals, but also textiles from the booming wool industries in both Flanders and Holland, a shipment of leather and exotic ivory. It was a ship of considerable size (at least 300 last) and departed from the Dutch Republic at a time of profound troubles. The Eighty Years’ War between the Republic and Spain was far from settled. War at sea was unremitting and intensifying, with Dunkirk privateers an unruly menace to Dutch shipping. Spanish rule in the southern Low Countries was highly militarised, and constant campaigns were waged against it from the North. Central Europe was devastated by the Thirty Years’ War, which had entered a new phase through new alliances. The heavy and strategically valuable cargo of the Dutch ship was assembled from North and South, as well as from a range of places in central Europe. The ship departed for a destination that it never reached. It sank off the coast of Texel, where it was discovered 350 years later. From 1985 to 1999 the wreck site and finds were subject to archaeological research, producing information on the ship, its setting and historical context as well as on the production and distribution of the individual shipments in the cargo, and informing us about the structure of early modern industry and trade, operating despite and because of the war. The present study, initiated by Wilma Gijsbers in 2010 and supported by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), the Maritime Archaeology Programme at the University of Southern Denmark (MAP-SDU) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; a one-year Odyssee grant), is the first to bring together all this evidence and evaluate it as a whole.

1635年或稍晚时期，一艘荷兰商船装载了各类物料与商品，其中以金属为主，同时包含来自佛兰德斯与荷兰蓬勃发展的羊毛产业的纺织品、一批皮革及珍稀象牙。该船体量可观（至少300拉斯特（last）），在时局动荡之际从荷兰共和国起航。彼时共和国与西班牙之间的八十年战争（Eighty Years’ War）尚未平息，海上战事连绵且愈演愈烈，敦刻尔克私掠船（Dunkirk privateers）已成为荷兰航运难以管控的致命威胁。
西班牙在南尼德兰（southern Low Countries）的统治高度军事化，北方持续发起针对其统治的战事。中欧地区因三十年战争（Thirty Years’ War）惨遭蹂躏，而新联盟的缔结又让这场战争进入了新阶段。
这艘荷兰商船搭载的高价值战略重货，其货源遍及南北各地以及中欧的诸多区域。该船原定驶向一处最终未能抵达的目的地，最终在特塞尔岛（Texel）外海沉没，并在350年后被发现。1985年至1999年间，考古学界对该沉船遗址及其出土物展开了系统考古研究，不仅获取了关于这艘船、其所处环境与历史背景的相关信息，还厘清了这批货物中各批次商品的生产与流通情况，同时为我们了解近代早期工业与贸易的结构提供了重要洞见——这些产业与贸易既是在战争的夹缝中存续，又因战争的存在而运转。
本项由威尔玛·希格斯（Wilma Gijsbers）于2010年发起的研究，得到了荷兰文化遗产署（Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, RCE）、南丹麦大学海事考古项目（Maritime Archaeology Programme at the University of Southern Denmark, MAP-SDU）以及荷兰科学研究组织（Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, NWO；获批为期一年的奥德赛资助项目（Odyssee grant））的支持，是首个整合所有相关证据并对其进行整体评估的研究。