I would like to find out if any archeology digs have been done in Horst, the Netherlands? I am also very interested in Roman Cornwall I have a lot of my mother’s side from that area, are there any maps of towns in Cornwall in Roman times? Joshua Keijsers (14)

Hello Joshua, it’s fantastic to see how passionate you are about history and archaeology!

Unfortunately, I don’t know much about Dutch archaeology but I asked your question on an archaeology forum and the answer I got was: yes, there is a lot of archaeology in Limburg and many excavations have taken place in Horst. Most of the articles are in Dutch though! I also asked for a few links (in English!) that might be helpful to you. This one for example is about the Merovingians in the Netherlands:

https://www.merovingianarchaeology.org/blog/?fbclid=IwAR39F29SZhisn00cF5IOtXhBhxlzn-C69FJ1DSXotNAa9Cltm-SH-ndNqWg

And this is the link for the local Historical Society of Horst – is this the association you have contacted before? They should definitely have information about the archaeology of the town:

http://www.lgogterhorst.nl/?fbclid=IwAR39CBA_EqgTdn_-fVkRNibW45P9di5xFcTnoKTL0_fwpMmGaud6V_vsPNE

From what I was told, the archaeology in Horst comprises prehistoric grave mounds, Roman remains and a medieval castle! Actually, they even found a catapult ball a couple of years ago when they excavated the castle! (A huge thank you to the BAJR team for all this information!).

As to your second question about Cornwall, the Romans settled there as they were keen to exploit the tin and copper resources. Few sites have been investigated, however: only three Roman forts (Restormel Castle, Nanstallon and Calstock), as well as a possible villa (Camborne), were identified. It is a possibility that the towns of Roman Cornwall looked quite similar to the towns of Iron Age Cornwall! The common thought is that Cornwall was not much of a threat to the Roman occupation of Britain and as a result, they only had a few bases there. They did mine the tin and copper but otherwise left the local population alone, which would explain why they mostly kept their ways.