Long before the beginning of the Western calendar, settlers discovered that life on the tidal marshes of the Wadden was quite favorable. Farmers who lived on the fringes of the Hondsrug grazed their livestock on sandbanks and mudflats that were dry at low tide. Later, they expanded their summer camps into permanent dwellings and raised mounds to shield themselves from the sea’s whims. The terp of Losdorp is over 2,600 years old. According to later Roman historians and poets, people there lived in pitiable conditions.