Only 1 to 2 meters below the surface of one of the car parks in Leidsenhage shopping mall, evidence of human habitation has been found dating back some 5000 years, from around the middle of the neolithicum in the Netherlands. The findings are mainly animal bones and teeth, clam shells, flint tools and pieces of ceramics. It would seem that it had been a midden of a settlement. 5000 years ago, this spot was located on a sand dune, one of a series running along the Dutch coast, by the beach. With the sea to the west, eastwards lay the coastal tidal marshes, peat bogs, lakes and creeks of the Rhine River delta.