The Early Beginnings

View of the river Maas space Photo from
View of the river Maas
 
Probably the region was already inhabited in the Iron Age. So close to a river teeming with fish and fertile land for primitive agriculture, the higher grounds were a safe and protective place to settle. Proof of this are several acres of burial grounds with urns and ashes that were dug up in the 1920s and 1930s. The findings are now to be seen in the
Leyden Museum of Antiquities.



Romans

The Romans were here as well, of course, (some 10 miles farther down the stream remnants of a Roman bridge were discovered in the river in 1996). After the Romans, the Carolinian kings reigned the region. They, however, did so badly that local dukes declared themselves independent and built small strongholds.