Creating a home. Ritual practice in a terp settlement in the northern Netherlands

The terp region of the northern Netherlands is an area with excellent preservation conditions, which make this a suitable area for the study of the remains of ritual practice in the past. One of the most extensively excavated terps is the terp settlement of Ezinge, which has its origins around 500 BC. An inventory of find assemblages that can be interpreted as ritual deposits, resulted in the identification of 142 deposits from the Iron Age alone, many of which are associated with houses. This contribution is concerned with the deposits associated with the life-cycle of houses or performed during inhabitation for the benefit of the inhabitants. Several of these deposits include human remains, either inhumation burials or single, sometimes modified human bones. It is argued that these ritual practices were concerned with the identity, prosperity and continuity of the household, and that the house can be considered a representation of the household.