During the Iron Age, before the incursion of the Batavi and the Romans, the region was principally populated by single family farmsteads, with people and cattle sharing the same longhouses, in dispersed patterns or in small hamlets of four or five families.
The longhouses were rectangular, built of wood with two aisles running the length of the building and separated by a wattle and daub wall: one side was for cattle, the other for humans.
A central fireplace was built and cooking was completed using ceramic pots. The houses were built on levees or other fairly high ground; storage facilities such as granaries were built on stilts to prevent loss of harvest from mice.
This form of settlement persisted well into the Roman period: the Romans simply added villas, towns and fortresses to the local building and settlement types in the region.
