Room of Threat

This is a tactile object. You may touch it.

Here you can feel a replica of a Roman helmet. The small metal fragments in the display case on the left in front of you are the remnants of such a helmet. They were part of the uniform of a Roman soldier. They come from the grave of a cavalryman.

This type of helmet was worn by Roman soldiers who invaded the Netherlands around two thousand years ago. It was made by hand from steel and brass and has hinged cheek pieces and copper decoration. Explore this helmet with your hands and learn more about it by listening to the explanation.

This legionnaire’s helmet has a rounded top. The front has a protrusion to protect the nose. Above the edge are three thicker curved lines on both sides, which probably served to reinforce the helmet. There are two copper rings, one in the middle at the front and another at the back, to which a plume of horsehair or feathers could be attached. For soldiers the plume ran from front to back. For the centurions – the commanders – the plume ran from ear to ear.

The other hooks you will feel on the helmet were used to hang the helmet. For example, around the soldier's neck when he was not using it. The helmet widens at the back as a kind of collar that protects the neck and shoulders. The rim is thicker and is copper coloured. At the ears and over the forehead this rim is wider and secured with copper nails.

The brim runs in an arc above the ears. In front of the ears hang the cheek pieces on a hinge. These are curved so that they cover the cheeks well and continue to the curve of the chin, then slightly inwards where the mouth is and forward over the cheekbones. They re-attach to the rim of the helmet next to the eyes. The rims of the cheek pieces are also copper coloured. 

The helmet is decorated with twelve copper-coloured circular rivets, three on each cheek piece, two pairs at the temples, and on the left and right corners of the collar. These, and the decorated bronze rims must have impressed the enemies: it showed that a lot of time, money and craftsmanship had gone into the helmet.

These helmets were expensive and the soldiers had to buy them themselves, so they were very careful with them. Some helmets are engraved with several names, which indicates that they may have had multiple owners and would have been passed on from one soldier to another. After all, why throw away an expensive helmet if it still works?

Who am I? Who was I? Am I still that woman

With wishes and dreams

Who roamed the fields

Herded cows

And whistled at men?

Or have I become someone else? Something else? Just a sacrifice

Given away by all of you

So you would get something different, better, in return?

By sacrificing me to the gods

You were asking luck to be on your side

Because the world is in crisis:

Famine, violence, menace

I felt I was the chosen one,

But there was also fear

And doubt

Shouldn’t a sacrifice be pure?

The best thing you could offer?

Was I good enough?

We walked to the peat bog together

But I never returned

You were all watching me together

As I was put to death

The group sharing responsibility

So no one had to bear this alone

You dressed me up in the finest clothes

I looked beautiful, when you

With trembling hands

Put the cord around my neck

The ritual brought you together

Everyone speaking with one voice

But it set me apart

Were you saved through me?

Now I lie here in the bog

Buried in a living landscape The bog around me moves and grows

My life has stopped, the bog lives on

Other sacrifices lie buried in the peat

Together we tell a single story

Of how far we were willing to go

And how our world works

The bog becomes a monument

The bodies signifiers

Of what you gave up

But never truly lost

How do you see me now?

Am I an exalted being?

Or was I just a means

To an end?

Have I ever really been a woman

Who whistled and herded cows?

Or did I become who I was meant to be

When I traded the fields for the bog?

One thing I do know: we are not the same

You are fleeting and finite

Briefly commemorated after you die and then forgotten

But I, I will be here forever…

This is a core object. You can listen to information here. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to touch this object.

In the room next door there is a large round platform. On its sloping surface, inside a display case, lies the dried-out body of the girl of Yde. After lying in the peat for two thousand years, her body was found on 12 May 1897 by Willem Emmens and Hendrik Barkhof. The cloak that was found with the body could be an indication of her status: cloaks were valuable garments at the time and the fact that it was left lying in the peat with her suggests that she had a certain status or that her sacrifice had a special meaning.

The peat body lies in the display case under the cloak: a replica, so that only the feet and head are visible. The body is about 140 centimetres long, 75 centimetres wide and only 10 centimetres high. The colour is mainly dark brown and the skin is leathery. Due to the conditions in the peat, the body has been well preserved, but it is not completely intact. A missing part of her torso under the cloak has been filled up, to give the silhouette a more human shape. The shape of the head, ears, eye sockets and mouth are still clearly visible. So is the nose bone, although it does not stick out very far. To the right of the girl's head lies a thick tuft of long reddish hair.

What she did in daily life, what she liked and what her name was? We can only guess. What we do know is that she lived around the beginning of the Christian era, when the first Romans invaded what is now the Netherlands. And that she must have played an important role in her community at the end of her life, because she was killed as a sacrifice and left in the swamp. From a modern perspective, sacrificing a human is a gruesome and barbaric act, but it’s also conceivable that at that time it was believed to be the ultimate way to gain the favour of the gods. When and why people were sacrificed is impossible to determine; perhaps as a fertility ritual, the execution of a prophecy or as a desperate plea for a cure for a disease.

That the Yde girl died as a sacrifice can be deduced from the fact that she has a stab wound in her neck. Part of her hair has been shaved off, and the trunk of an oak tree has been found next to her body: actions that are often part of a sacrificial ritual. Around her neck there is a band of wool. When the girl was found in the peat, there was a slip knot on it, which is a strong indication that the girl was strangled. She also has a groove in her neck under the band, which confirms the theory of strangulation.

Now enter the room and immerse yourself in the audio story in which you can hear her talk.