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Heemskerk
Sunday 17 June
2007 |
 The
invitation to come to the coast of North Holland
was sure unusual, used as we are to roam around
the Limes in the middle of the country. What,
after all, had Roman soldiers ever done for the
(at that time) largely uninhabited coastal
region, seemingly far from the Roman border along
the river Rhine? The reason was Hilde, the
exhibition 'Treasures
beneath your feet', about
a 4th-c. woman who had once lived in these parts.
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Heemskerk and the North Holland Dune reserve. |
Detailed image of the area of the event. |
 The exhibition,
as well as the event, are sponsored by the PWN Water
Company, who made this all possible. We had originally
been invited to the 'Winter Day' event in February, but
we had had to cancel that one. Luckily, the 'Summer Day'
event in the middle of the dune was a date we could keeep
- lucky for us.
The day started very wet. The signs for the rest of the
day weren't too good either, and when we drove past
Amsterd am the heavens opened! Add to that a shifty car
with a mysterious defect on the right front, and you'll
guess our apprehension when we drove from Utrecht into
North Holland.
Roel from the LHO had an constant line of
visitors awaiting their turn. |
Merovingian Franks duelling.. |
..or just deciding who first gets a pancake? |
Setting up camp - the Franks making a living
space in the dunes. |
Hieronymus makes friends. |
Getting the fire to burn... |
..so that the kids can be fed. |
With
a car making odd noices, we reached Heemskerk and drove
into the wood that cover m ost of the Nature Reserve,
until we reached a quite large open space (see the images
above), where a large number of tents had already been
set up. We were one of three re-enactment groups, one
being a Viking-period smithy and the other some old
friends from LHO (Die Landen
van Herwaarts Over, translated as 'The Lands Over
There'), who also show the Merovingian period. Among them
Roel, who we met as part of the Teuxandrii, and
Mante, once a fellow-member of Legio II Augusta.
And the rest of them were also very friendly neighbours,
even though we were the Romans and they the hostile
Franks!
Charge! A visitor looking feral. |
Hasta in front! Another visitor dresssed
up to look the part. |
Ready to charge! The Late Romans ready
to give the rest a bit of a fright. Just don't
smile, you'll give it all away... |
Luckily,
the rain had stopped before we arrived, and the camp site
was dry. Although we did have a few minor showers that
day, I think we were extremely lucky, considering the
dwonpoors in the rest of the country! The good weather
also caused a good turnout - there were plenty of
visitors, enough to keep us constantly busy.
Chariovalda recruiting another
volunteer. |
Valerius showing the use of a hasta. |
Percute! And another young recruit for
the legions. |
"Tiro" dressing up into a
heavy hamata. See the large picture. |
The camp of the Franks. Next time we'll also have
a tent to add to the scenery. |
Especially
Roel was very soufght-after, there seemed to be a
constant line of people (kids, mainly), who wanted to
have a go at shooting arrows. Andreas and me were almost
constantly explaining, showing material, dressing people
up in Roman equipment, and in the afternoon we had a
plumbata throw, which also proved very popular.
A well deserved break for food. |
Our part of the camp. |
The well- stocked table of our neighbours. |
Mante preparing more pancakes. |
We were also allowed a few.. Yummy! |
Guarding the line.. |
.. for the arrow shoot, wgich was very popular. |
Tied to house or tied to husband? |
For the kids, the day was one big adventure of
playing soldiers in the woods. |
Watch out for the next generation! Hiljo, Rosa
and Jeroen. |
Reflections in a helmet. |
"That's us"! |
The portable smithy of the Vikings. |
All
in all a very nice day. Nice weather, good neighbour,
interested visitors and very well-organised. And yes, the
car remained whole enough to get us all safely back home
again.
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