A threatened sanctuary

For centuries, Schokland was an island in the Zuyder Zee. But long before that it was part of the mainland, which in that area consisted primarily of peat. Schokland has a core of sand and boulder clay dating from the last ice age.

After the ice age, this sand and boulder clay area was visited and inhabited by a nomadic people who left many traces behind. The oldest signs of human habitation are from some 10,000 years ago. Subsequently, over thousands of years, peat formed on this core of sand and clay, with a stretch of water somewhere in the middle, which in the early Middle Ages was called ‘Almere’. The encroaching sea threatened and broke away the peat. Eventually, what was once the Almere grew into the Zuyder Zee. The inhabitants of the peat area strove to protect themselves for many years by building small dykes and mounds, but to no avail. Ultimately, only a few islands of this former land mass remained.

The people living on Schokland also gradually moved further inwards to the centre area and the hundreds of occupants finally grouped together on three or four dwelling mounds, thus forming small neighbourhoods called Emmeloord (also called Noorderbuurt), Middelbuurt (or Molenbuurt, the largest of the three) and Zuidert (also called Zuiderbuurt or Oudekerk). The latter two together are also known as Ens. The primary occupants were cattle farmers, fishermen, captains and a few tradesmen. In the middle of the 19th century living conditions for these people fell to unacceptable levels: poverty, sickness and various forms of deprivation prevailed. Their safety could no longer be guaranteed either, as many inhabitants drowned in the storm flood of 1825.