Week 2: The Netherlands (Cont.)

Part 2: Leiden

I spent May 27–29 in Leiden studying the Wadjak 1 and 2 Homo sapiens material from Indonesia (a.k.a., the former Dutch East Indies, hence why these specimens are in the Netherlands instead of Indonesia).  Leiden is a university town, and while I didn’t see much of the University, the town itself is very picturesque.  I stayed in a pretty central and very nice location, Hotel Mayflower, which was a welcome change of pace (noise wise) from my hotel in Amsterdam!  It was right on the major central canal (which is a former part of the Rhine) and an open square area with restaurants.

The view from my hotel room in Leiden!

On Monday I went to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden.  They have very modern storage facilities (i.e., temperature and humidity controlled), which is good for the collections, but I had to work in the same room with the collections which meant that I got rather cold (it was kept at a constant 64^oF or so, which may not sound so bad, but when just sitting in one place it gets chilly)!  They had a really nifty espresso maker though, so when I needed a break I could make an espresso and stand outside in the sun to warm up. J  

The view from "the tower" of Naturalis where I was working with the collections.  There were no windows IN the room where I was working, but when I left the lab, I was treated to a nice view of the city.

What many museum storage facilities look like "behind the scenes" (i.e., what researchers study that's not on public display)

It was really exciting to work in the “Collectie DuBois” which consisted of many faunal specimens and a few hominin specimens collected by Eugene Dubois, an early pioneer in paleoanthropology, particularly in Indonesia.  He was the first to recognize the species Homo erectus (which he originally named Pithecantrhopus erectus) in the late nineteenth century.  In fact, he made a wooden statue for one of the World’s Fairs of what he thought Pithecantrhopus erectus would have looked like based upon the skeletal material he’d studied, and it happened to be *right* next to where I was working!

Pithecanthropus erectus statue created by Eugene Dubois.

Pithecanthropus erectus statue right next to my workspace!

However, I wasn’t there to study Homo erectus material (they don’t have any mandibles there), but instead, I was there to study Wadjak 1 and 2, both early Homo sapiens.  In fact, an article just came out dating them to much older than originally thought, which made seeing these remains extra interesting.  Since I just saw 2 specimens there, I had some extra time to see the Naturalis museum, which was really neat all around, but to me, especially because they had the original Homo erectus skull cap and femur on display which I drooled over for a while as other visitors passed by.

Original Homo erectus skullcap and femur on display at Naturalis.

The Trinil calotte.

In all, Leiden was a lovely town with lots to see and do.  It was far more “Dutch” looking and feeling than Amsterdam in terms of having old windmills to see.

And I also had a delicious apfelstruedel panenkoek!

Apfelstrudel pannenkoek served on a traditional Dutch pancake plate with apple cider at Oudt Leyden Pannenkoekenhuys.

On May 29 I took the train from Leiden back to the Amsterdam airport and spent the night in a hotel near there before flying out to Lisbon the next morning.  I took a little stroll around the hotel and saw these signs on parking spaces, wondering what they meant:

I wondered if they were for pregnant women, although there is no such designation, just “woman only.”  When I posed this question on Facebook Nick let me know that there are designated parking spaces for women only near entrances and where security cameras are facing to prevent assault.  I was unaware of this and found it interesting!