Etersheim / Eitersem

The medieval church and the village itself sunk into the Zuiderzee; some items recovered by divers in August 2009, among them a 1th-century stone sarcophagus and an elaborately carved tombstone, now in the nearby church at Oosthuizen. A communication to BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 2 February 2025) informs: "The old village of Etersheim has been flooded by the sea in the 16th century. In 2001, during an archaeological dive, the foundations of the original village church were found. 8 years later, in August 2009, thanks to sonar pictures, a sarcophagus from the 12th century was found on the seabed. Because of the dangerous conditions for the divers, visibility being nil, and because the ministry did not grant permission for further archaeological exploration, the site was abandoned for many years. It was not possible to follow up the possible baptismal font that divers detected by touch. Its location was not documented. It is however know that amateur divers continued to scavenge the site, on search of gold coins and valuable artefacts. Because planned reinforcement of the dikes would damage the site, a remote sensing device was installed in 2020, to scan the bottom (see picture). Also photogrammetric cameras and remote robots were used to identify and recover objects. The previously noticed foundations of the church could not be found. All that was observed were loose bricks and tuff stones."