Archaeological Wood Database



WOODAN in short

This is what we do at WOODAN and what sets us apart

Many finds

In WOODAN we have a collection of a few thousand archaeological timber finds. All finds have been collected by archaeologists or amateur archaeologists and in many cases have been published in separate reports.

Synthetic

WOODAN started from a synthesizing study for merging many separate Malta reports. While this research has been completed, we will continue with our mission to collect and unlock wood.

International

After a start in the Netherlands, WOODAN quickly started looking over the land greens. We presented the system at, or started collaborating with, archaeologists from Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania, Austria, Germany ...

Multilingual

To break through country borders it is necessary to break through language barriers. WOODAN has therefore developed its own system for translating wood finds. The system now runs in English, French, German and Dutch.

Modern technology

WOODAN can be opened via various devices and systems. A MySQL database runs behind the website and we work with PHP and JSON to unlock the data.

Smart search

For the website it is important that it is easy to use. WOODAN interprets your search, regardless of whether you are searching on a type of wood, on a location, on types of objects, on a date ...

The organization behind WOODAN

WOODAN is an international foundation based in the Netherlands

WOODAN is a free-to-use, public web database about archaeological timber finds. Everyone can search for archaeological information here quickly and easily. The system was started in 2015 from a project subsidized by the Netherlands Department of Cultural Heritage (NL). The aim of this project was to do a synthesizing study of all timber finds in all Malta publications from 1997 onwards. Various companies and different timber specialists started working on this and in 2017 this resulted in the publication Uit het Juiste Hout Carved. Where that book focused primarily on categorizing and describing the many archaeological timber, WOODAN was launched as a sort of reference work, in which all the finds could be found.

We are now a few years later and have been able to give WOODAN an independent basis. In 2018 the database was transferred to the newly established WOODAN Foundation. The foundation has two objectives: to collect and publish information about archaeological timber finds and to stimulate research into archaeological timber. The WOODAN Foundation has stated that it wants to be an independent foundation, whereby making a profit is explicitly not an objective. From this basis, we hope to be able to further develop the system through subsidies or donors.

WOODAN Foundation has been granted ANBI status in the Netherlands, which means that it is a foundation for the public interest and that donations are deductible from the (Dutch) tax. Our ANBI number is: RSIN 859105684.

Documents

Meet the board

The power of WOODAN is in bundling different specialties

Silke Lange Archaeologist, wood specialist

Silke is the chairman of WOODAN and is an wood specialist at Biax Consult.

Jelte van der Laan Archaeologist, wood specialist

Jelte is the treasurer of WOODAN and is associated with Cambium Botany as an wood specialist.

Stephan Nicolaij Archaeologist, programmer

Stephan is the secretary of WOODAN and is a programmer at Qursi Software

1808

Artifacts

538

photos

43

Wood species

379

Find locations

A selection from our collection

Be inspired by this view into the past. Click on the find for more information.

  • Middeleeuwse Handbraak
  • Romeinse Blokschaaf
  • Romeins Houtsnijwerk
  • Middeleeuwse kom
  • Middeleeuwse Schuif
  • Middeleeuwse Pennendoos
  • Romeinse Ton
  • Middeleeuwse Schaal
  • Romeinse Schaal