A skull found near the new polder city of Almere shows the area was inhabited during the Roman era, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.

Until now, it had been thought the polder region was under water for the past 4,000 years. The area was drained and turned into farm and industrial land in the late 1950s and 1960s.
The skull was initially thought to point to a recent death but Almere’s city archaeologist says it actually dates from the first or second century AD. ‘We think it must come from a Frisian. This area was then known as Germania and was not occupied by the Romans,’ Willem-Jan Hogestijn told the Telegraaf.