Aanloop Molengat – Maritime archaeology and intermediate trade during the Thirty Years’ War Thijs Maarleveld and Alice Overmeer, with contributions by O. Brinkkemper, F. van Deijk, W.M. Gijsbers,E.M. Jacobs, C. Joosten, M. Terhorst, A.D. Vos Review data Submission: // Revision: // nd submission: // available online at www.jalc.nl and www.jalc.be Abstract In  or shortly thereafter, a Dutch ship was laden with all sorts of materials and products, mostly metals, but also textiles from the booming wool industries in both Flanders and Hol- land, a shipment of leather and exotic ivory. It was a ship of considerable size (at least  last) and departed from the Dutch Republic at a time of profound troubles. The Eighty Years’ War between the Republic and Spain was far from settled. War at sea was unremitting and intensi- fying, with Dunkirk privateers an unruly menace to Dutch shipping. Spanish rule in the south- ern Low Countries was highly militarised, and constant campaigns were waged against it from the North. Central Europe was devastated by the Thirty Years’ War, which had entered a new phase through new alliances. The heavy and strategically valuable cargo of the Dutch ship was assembled from North and South, as well as from a range of places in central Europe. The ship departed for a destination that it never reached. It sank off the coast of Texel, where it was discovered  years later. From  to  the wreck site and finds were subject to archaeological research, produ- cing information on the ship, its setting and historical context as well as on the production and distribution of the individual shipments in the cargo, and informing us about the structure of early modern industry and trade, operating despite and because of the war. The present study, initiated by Wilma Gijsbers in  and supported by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), the Maritime Archaeology Programme at the University of Southern Den- mark (MAP-SDU) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; a one-year Odyssee grant), is the first to bring together all this evidence and evaluate it as a whole. Central to the study is the analysis of the ship and cargo assemblage as excavated, which is presented in Part  and  of this article. This is combined with an analysis of the discovery, its impact and the efficiency of fieldwork methodology in Part , and with reflections on the contribution the project makes to our understanding of production, trade and international relations in the spe- cific historical context in Part . Keywords: Texel, Aanloop Molengat, Maritime Archaeology, Photogrammetry, Public Archae- ology, Mixed diving teams, th Century, Thirty-Years War, Shipbuilding, Dutch-Flush, Trans- port, Straatvaart, Metals, Mining, Ingots, Cloth Industry, Leather, Pin-making, Nicolaas Witsen. Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries - (October ) © Maarleveld and AUP