UG buildings: the Institute of Archaeology

The University of Groningen as we know it now is more than the Academy Building alone. In this series, based on the podwalk and the Dutch booklet In the footsteps of the Academy , we will put the spotlight on various buildings—and a work of art—of the UG and their history. In this episode: the Institute of Archaeology.

The Poststraat is a somewhat hidden side street of the Oude Boteringestraat. It used to be called the Hoofdstraatje, but in order to avoid confusion with the Hoogstraatje—a side street of the Herestraat—the name was changed. The name Poststraat was chosen because the first Groningen post office was located here. The building at number six was built for that purpose in 1871. It now belongs to the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA).

In 1920, the Biological–Archaeological Institute (BAI), the predecessor of the GIA, was housed here. The founder and first director was Albert van Giffen, the most well-known Dutch archaeologist of the twentieth century. His nickname was ‘father of the dolmens’, but in Drenthe, he was called ‘oes spittertien’, because he had done so many excavations in that province. Without his efforts, the majority of the dolmens that are there now would probably no longer exist. In addition to doing research, Van Giffen also restored many collapsed and partly destroyed dolmens.

During his excavations in Ezinge in the 1920s and 1930s, Van Giffen was the first to completely expose the structure of a village through the centuries. He developed a method to retrieve as many data as possible with minimal disruption to the excavation site.

Want to find out more?

Check out the previous edition on

• The Academy Building

• The Ubbo Emmius monument

• The University Library
• The Röling Building
• The former Laboratory for Hygiene

• The former Astronomy Laboratory

Are you interested in the buildings and history of the UG? You can download the podwalk ‘In the footsteps of the Academy’ for free. Go to the App Store (Apple) or Google Play (Android) and search for ‘Op stap met Aletta’. The walking route is also available as a book from the I-Shop (University shop).