02. Milk teeth

Can you see the very small tooth in the display cabinet? It is the milk tooth of a child aged about ten. You may ask yourself why such a tooth is a masterpiece in this museum. The tooth is so special because it is the oldest human relic ever dug up on the mainland of The Netherlands. Just imagine, more than ten thousand years ago people were in Zutphen! This is where the story about the people of Zutphen begins. This child was part of a group of hunter-gatherers. They made their camp in the surroundings of Zutphen. It is well known that hunter-gatherers moved across large areas looking for food. Because of the warm climate and the many rivers to be found around Zutphen, it must have been paradise for the first people in this area. In the same location that the milk teeth were found, bones of red deer, roe deer, aurochs and wild boar were also discovered. The flint tools you see in the display cabinet were used to catch and process these animals.

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The Musea Zutphen -Stedelijk Museum Zutphen en het Museum Henriette Polak- are located in the 17th-century city palace Hof van Heeckeren. History, cultural history, visual arts and topical matters meet here in a surprising way