Beim Ausbau der Metro wurde in Amsterdam eine der vielen Grachten der Amstel trockengelegt. Dabei sind über 700.000 Gegenstände wieder aufgetaucht, u.a. jede Menge Haschpfeifen, kiloweise Münzen, sehr viele Schlüssel, Spritzen, alte Handys, Musikkassetten, Kreditkarten, Menschenknochen, Gebisse, Pistolen und irgendwas mit Pokémon.
20.000 dieser Dinge wurden Stück für Stück von Archäologen online katalogisiert. Unter Below the Surface gibt es ein Archiv entlang eines Zeitstrahls, der bestimmt, wie alt die jeweiligen Objekte sind. Eine digitale Fundgrube.
The excavations in the Amstel yielded a deluge of finds, some 700,000 in all: a vast array of objects, some broken, some whole, all jumbled together. Damrak and Rokin proved to be extremely rich sites on account of the waste that had been dumped in the river for centuries and the objects accidentally lost in the water.
The enormous quantity, great variety and everyday nature of these material remains make them rare sources of urban history. The richly assorted collection covers a vast stretch of time, from long before the emergence of the city right up to the present day. The objects paint a multi-facetted picture of daily life in the city of Amsterdam. Every find is a frozen moment in time, connecting the past and the present.
The picture they paint of their era is extremely detailed and yet entirely random due to the chance of objects or remains sinking down into the riverbed and being retrieved from there. This is what makes this archaeological collection so fascinating, so poetically breathtaking and abstract at one and the same time.
