With the well in the Oudemanhuispoort, the well diggers also disappeared from our memory
In his PhD thesis, historian Mathijs Boom recounts a well in the Oudemanhuispoort in the 17th century and the important role the well diggers played in the exchange of knowledge with European scholars. What do we know about this vanished well?
“This is roughly where it must have stood,” says historian Mathijs Boom (36). He points to a bench in the rustic garden of the Oudemanhuispoort. Nothing special, by the looks of it. But from the year 1605, a 73-metre-deep well stood here. At the time, the deepest in the Netherlands, Boom says, “to my knowledge even in Europe”. The well provided the people of Amsterdam with clean drinking water, but also offered the 17th-century population a special insight into the history of this lowland area. Brochures about the discoveries in the well circulated across the continent and deeply impressed European scholars. “They were documents unlike any other,” Boom said.
Researchers at the UvA's 4D Research Lab made historical reconstructions of the Oudemanhuispoort in 2024, based on old construction drawings, maps and photos. On the historical reconstruction of the Oudemanhuispoort in 1625, the well is still visible, but by 1760 it was no longer.
Unlike its name suggests, the Oudemannenhuis was not only for old men. There were also old women who took up residence in the complex, which opened its doors in 1602. Since 1880, the building has been owned by the UvA.
Unfortunately, the well has not been here since the 18th century, according to historical 4D reconstructions of the Oudemanhuispoort made this year by UvA researchers. But the knowledge about the history of the earth that emerged from the well did remain, Boom said. For Boom the reason for opening his PhD thesis at the UvA on the earth history of the Low Countries between 1550-1830 with it.
Shells and Roman coins
What did the well tell people from the 17th century? “Someone spent days there keeping track of what all came out of the ground at what depth: earth, sand, peat, clay, shells,” says Boom. That's how they found out how much the landscape changed over time. Do you find Roman coins in a layer of peat, dozens of metres underground? Then you know how much soil has been added on top of that since the Roman era, some 1,700 years ago. Do you find shells? So then you know that a sea existed on the current site of Amsterdam. Knowledge that was previously hidden deep underground.
So if you, as a scholar of natural philosophy in the 17th century, wanted to know something about the history and origin of your country, you had to go to the well diggers in those days. They had seen the changes with their own eyes, during their digging activities. Moreover, they were reliable; at the time, they were regarded as high-ranking craftsmen with ditto incomes. So someone like René Descartes was happy to make use of their knowledge and experience. According to Boom, it is known that the French philosopher found himself in Amsterdam circles some 20 years after the well was created, where people had printed documents about those excavations.
Belief in God
It is often thought that people in the 17th century believed almost unconditionally in God's creation of the earth, without much change afterwards. But that is certainly not entirely correct, Boom concludes. His thesis shows that, for early modern man, God's creation of the earth and the changing landscape could go quite well together. “That people then thought the earth had been created by God four thousand years ago, and hadn't changed much since, is a far too simplistic view.” In this sense, the discoveries in the well were not an immediate reason for many people to abandon faith.
Opposite the bench, where the well used to stand, Boom happens to notice a statue of Gerardus Vossius (1579-1649) and Caspar Barlaeus (1584-1648), the founders of the Atheneaum Illustre, the forerunner of the University of Amsterdam. It was placed there in honour of the university's 300th anniversary. “Vossius is someone who spoke very influentially about ideas of natural science and how they related to the correct interpretation of religion and the Bible. So here in the Oudemanhuispoort, you can see the tension between on the one hand the scholars, who do get a place in the garden, and on the other hand (literally) the vanished craft of well digging.”
It seems inherent in all our thinking about history. “Certainly in the 16th and 17th centuries, we naturally paid a lot of attention to the great thinkers. People like Descartes and Newton. And in recent literature there is a strong emphasis on the role of craftsmen, who worked in the cloth industry, for example. But perhaps we overlook the people who also played a major role in some way but remained invisible, such as the well diggers at the Oudemanhuispoort. They may not have been the ones who came up with the great theories of nature, but they contributed to fruitful interaction with the scholars, allowing them to excel.”
