A travel in time

During the last ice age, the sea level was much lower. There was no North Sea. Mammoths, sabretooths, and Neanderthals roamed around in this cold tundra, and all of them left their marks. We can visit the small, but interesting local geological museum (site in Dutch).
The southern edge of the mighty Scandinavian glaciers was right here, in our region. Pushing and melting, they deposited moraine, boulders and gravel. Forming the range of low hills that, on our cycling trip, will tell you that Holland is not as flat as you probably thought.

Yes, modern people also came roaming on these plains. But always on the move, hunting, fishing and gathering.
It's only when climate became milder, that permanent occupation, and eventually agriculture became possible. The many burial mounts you'll see on the heather and in the woods date from the bronze age (2000-800 BC), as do the "Celtic fields", but you need a trained eye to see them.

Already in those days men started changing the land. Chopping down the dense woods, gradually forming the wide open heather fields we know today.
And also gradually the sea level started rising. Never stopped doing so ...
The lower land slowly changed into a peat wilderness, were human live was only possible on the few (slightly) higher grounds. This would roughly remain so until around 1000 AD, see route Sinking land.
The higher part of the region however would remain more densely populated in the same period. With a dramatic dip after the fall of the Roman Empire.

But for a couple hundred years of stability, after the defeat of the Romans in the Varus-battle (9 AD), the border of the Roman Empire was established just south of this region. That fortified border along the Rhine was by no means an iron curtain ; there was a lot of commerce and (generally) peaceful contact.
And in all periods, the rivers around here were important for trade and military purposes (Romans, Vikings).