AA (Aukjen) Nauta

I studied earth sciences at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. My main subjects were ore geology and petrology. I started working as a guide in technical museum het NINT in Amsterdam, the predecessor of science museum NEMO. I worked for Elsevier Science Publishers as a desk-editor. For nearly 20 years I have been a free-lance writer and editor, writing mainly about earth sciences both for professionals and a larger audience. For 17 years I have been the editor of the Geo.brief, the newsletter of the KNGMG, the royal Dutch geological and mining society.

I am currently working on a research project on the bog iron ores in the Bourtangermoor, one of the largest raised bog systems in NW-Europe that once existed in Groningen and Drenthe, extending far into Germany. My main focus is on examining the conditions favorable for the deposition of the iron ores, determining where bog iron ores would have been deposited when the Bourtangermoor was at its maxium entent and the archaeological significance of the Bourtangermoor bog iron ores during Roman times and the Medieval period. This project is part of the NWO-funded project ‘Home Turf’ of landscape archaeologist dr. Roy van Beek that focusses on the former raised bog systems in the Pleistocene parts of the Netherlands, their expansion, exploitation and heritage management (https://www.wur.nl/en/project/Home-Turf.htm)