UNION INTERNATIONALE DES SCIENCES PRĒHISTORIQUES ET PROTOHISTORIQUES
Meeting of Commission XXXII ‘The final Palaeolithic of the Great European Plain’
PIONEERS AT THE END OF THE LAST ICE AGE. RECENT STUDIES ON LATE
PALAEOLITHIC HUNTER-GATHERERS IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE
22nd – 25th MAY, 2012, Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS
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PROGRAMME TUESDAY, MAY 22nd
09.30–10.30: Reception / coffee.
10.30: Eelco Rensink: Welcome and introduction.
10.50: Berit Valentin Eriksen: Greetings from the President.
SESSION 1: Raw material use, blade industries and blade technologies in the Late Palaeolithic /
Early Mesolithic of the North European Plain
Chair: Berit Valentin Eriksen
11.00: David De Wilde & Marc De Bie: Lithic technology across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition:
new insights from Lommel and Meer (Campine region, Belgium).
11.30: Paul Pettitt: Preliminary results on LA-ICP-MS analyses of British flint sources and artefacts:
implications for Lateglacial movement patterns.
12.00: Mara-Julia Weber: Ye shall know them by their blades – Hamburgian pioneers in northern
Germany and their blade production.
LUNCH 12.30 – 14.00
14.00: Morten Ramstad: Colonizing darkness, entering the light! Lithic raw materials, trends and tradition
during the Early Mesolithic in Western Finnmark, Arctic Norway.
14.30: Tor Arne Waraas: Early Mesolithic points and blades from Western Norway.
15.00: Helena Knutsson: The final stage of the postglacial colonization of Fennoscandia, regional blade
technologies and the use of local raw materials.
COFFEE 15.30
SESSION 2: Late Palaeolithic sites and archaeological heritage management
Chair: Hans Peeters
16.00: Bjørn Smit: Where’s the Late Palaeolithic!? Detecting Late Palaeolithic remains within the context
of archaeological heritage management.
16.30: Leo Tebbens: Early (?) Ahrensburg-hunters in the southern Netherlands. New interdisciplinary
research near Geldrop.
17.30: Internal meeting for members of UISPP subcommission XXXII
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23 th: EXCURSION TO NORTHERN NETHERLANDS
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PROGRAMME THURSDAY, MAY 24th
SESSION 3: The influence of the landscape on the recolonization of the North European Plain
Chair: Nick Barton
9.00: Jan Michal Burdukiewicz, Magdalena Koralewicz and Dagmara Samulik: Between Magdalenian
and Hamburgian – the site Wroclaw-Zerniki 25.
09.30: Jacek Kabaciński: Chronology of the Hamburgian Settlement at Mirkowice from
palaeoenvironmental perspective.
10.00: Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka: Preliminary reconstruction of palaeonvironemntal conditions on Late
Glacial site at Lubrza, Western Poland.
COFFEE 10.30 – 11.00
11.00: V.SegliĦš and Ilga Zagorska: The Late Palaeolithic landscape and the routes of arrival of the first
inhabitants.
11.30: Sonja B. Grimm: Into the great wide open - Marginalization as a motor of the Lateglacial
expansion into northern Europe.
12.00: Morten Fischer Mortensen: Environmental preconditions for the late glacial colonisation of
Denmark.
LUNCH 12.30 – 14.00
Chair: Thomas Terberger
14.00: Inga Kretschmer: Palaeodemography of the European Late Upper Palaeolithic.
14.30: Jörg Holzkämper and Andreas Maier: New results on the recolonization of Western Germany after
the Last Glacial Maximum.
15.00: Martin Street: The onset of Late Glacial Greenland Interstadial (GI 1) in the Central Rhineland of
Germany. Can we identify ephemeral human occupation?
COFFEE 15.30 – 16.00
16.00: Van Gils, E. Paulissen, B. Vanmontfort, M. De Bie, J. Bastiaens and F. Geerts: The impact of Late
Glacial landscape changes on settlement locations in coversand areas. The evidence for northeastern
Belgium.
FRIDAY, MAY 25th: EXCURSION TO BELGIUM/SOUTHERN NETHERLANDS
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ABSTRACTS
SESSION 1: RAW MATERIAL USE, BLADE INDUSTRIES AND BLADE TECHNOLOGIES IN THE LATE
PALAEOLITHIC / EARLY MESOLITHIC OF THE NORTH EUROPEAN PLAIN
David De Wilde1,2 & Marc De Bie1,3
1 Department of Art History and Archaeology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
2 PhD Fellowship of the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO)
3 Flemish Heritage Institute, Brussel, Belgium
[email protected], [email protected]
Lithic technology across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition: new insights from Lommel and Meer
(Campine region, Belgium).
New technological analyses of several loci of Lommel-Maatheide and Meer-Meirberg, two sitecomplexes in the Campine Region, were used to evaluate technological changes across the PleistoceneHolocene transition. The analysis of formal tool types is often insufficient to understand such diachronic
variation in lithic technology. To attain a greater insight of technological concepts it is necessary to
(mentally) reconstruct the complete chaîne opératoire. However, the acquisition and comparison between
these datasets is the final goal of our research. A quantitative analysis does not explain human behaviour
or the choices made, consciously or not. If we want to comprehend technological adaptations, innovations
or continuity, a simple enumeration of variability or similarity is insufficient. It is essential to identify the
instigators that led to different technological choices.
In this paper we will use the analyses of Lommel and Meer to exemplify how these instigators influence
technological choices and how they can be perceived in lithic assemblages. We subsequently evaluate the
influence of altered natural environments, the influence of raw material use, functional imperatives and
cultural or ethnic influences.
Paul Pettitt
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
[email protected]
Preliminary results on LA-ICP-MS analyses of British flint sources and artefacts: implications for
Lateglacial movement patterns.
Since 2010 LA-ICP-MS trace element analysis has been used to define major sources of British bedrock
flint, and associate lithic artefacts from sites of Creswellian/Late Magdalenian and Long Blade affiliation
to these. Results indicate that we are able successfully to distinguish between major source regions (e.g.
Yorkshire, North Linclolnshire, East Anglia, Beer Head, Salisbury Plain, South Downs) and ascribe with
some confidence artefacts to these. In this paper we compare source identifications from several
assemblages of Meiendorf age identified as Late Magdalenian (Creswellian) and from two assemblages of
final Pleistocene age identified as Long Blade Assemblages (Ahrensburgian?). We discuss these in the
light of potential land use models for British Late Upper Palaeolithic groups.
Mara-Julia Weber
Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische
Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany
[email protected]
Ye shall know them by their blades – Hamburgian pioneers in northern Germany and their blade
production
This paper will summarize the results of a technological analysis of classic Hamburgian lithic inventories
from the Ahrensburg tunnel valley (Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany). As the makers of these lithic
artefacts were part of the pioneer settlement on the North European Plain after the Last Glacial
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Maximum, characteristics of the Magdalenian tradition but also peculiarities of its northern variant will be
investigated on the basis of lithic productions.
Blade production constitutes the part of the chaîne opératoire on which the focus of the paper will lie.
Thus, the objectives of this blank manufacture will be presented and the modalities chosen to achieve
them will be described in terms of raw material selection, core preparation and maintenance, platform use,
evolution of the reduction face, knapping techniques, and cessation of core reduction.
Morten Ramstad
SFYK, University museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
[email protected]
Colonizing darkness, entering the light! Lithic raw materials, trends and tradition during the Early
Mesolithic in Western Finnmark, Arctic Norway.
The paper deals with the timing and nature of the colonization process of the northernmost part of Europe.
The point of departure will be a presentation of two early-post glacial sites from the small island of
Melkøya, the region of Western Finnmark, Arctic Norway, excavated in 2001-2002. A re-examination of
other pre-boreal sites in the region aims at placing the pioneers of Coastal Arctic Norway within a wider
Scandinavian context as well as its relations with the late glacial groups of the European Plains.
Particular attention will be directed towards the procurement of local raw materials and their subsequent
implication for both material and cultural transformations, constituent for the enculturation to northern
landscapes as well as the social structures of later Mesolithic Arctic hunters-fishers of the far north.
Tor Arne Waraas
Section for Cultural Heritage Management University Museum of Bergen, Norway.
[email protected]
Early Mesolithic points and blades from Western Norway.
The paper will present blade technology, finds and spatial patterns from an Early Mesolithic site in
coastal Western Norway (Aagotnes site 9a+b) excavated in 2009 and 2011. The spatial patterning
consists of several activity areas surrounding a large tabular rhombic boulderstone situated in the middle
of the site.
Approximately 50 Early Mesolithic projectile points were recovered from the site. This assemblage is a
heterogeneous group ranging from Ahrensburgian tanged points, single edge points, drill bits to
lanceolate microliths. Perhaps most intriguing is a large tanged point. Previously, researchers in Norway
have grouped large tanged points within a Late Palaeolithic framework. However being stray finds
recovered from Early Mesolithic shore line levels, these have not so far proved indisputable evidence of
Late Palaeolithic habitation. On the contrary, the large point from Aagotnes, which is the second found in
an Early Mesolithic excavated context, rather suggest that these ‟ pseudo-Brommean” points belong to an
Early Mesolithic tradition.
An attribute analysis of all the projectile points from the site shows the limited approach of stylistic
studies, however this approach can reveal some details on how blades were manufactured and thus the
blade technology applied. It is argued that the blade technologies applied should be the focus, rather than
the more pragmatic arbitrary shape of the projectile points.
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Helena Knutsson
Stoneslab, Uppsala, Sweden
[email protected]
The final stage of the postglacial colonization of Fennoscandia, regional blade technologies and the
use of local raw materials.
During recent years several new Stone Age sites have been surveyed and excavated that in the early
Holocene were situated close to the melting Weichselian ice sheet in the inner parts of the Scandinavian
Peninsula. The finds sheds new light on the pioneer settlement of the area.
A joint European project investigates these materials, and a complicated process of movement of people
into the de-glaciated areas of inner of Scandinavia is indicated. The main focus in my part of the project is
the analysis of the chaine operatoire of selected assemblages consisting of the complex blade technologies
typical for this period. My idea is that transmission of knowledge between groups and generations as well
as adjustment to new raw materials, will be made visible through this strategy.
Technological similarities between Russian, Finnish and Norwegian materials and differences from the
south Scandinavian materials, suggest movements of people in east-west direction as well as transmission
of technological knowledge. Certain areas with the use of local raw materials like quartz and volcanic
rocks are to some respect following the east-west traditions and as such seen as results prospecting for
raw material and adjusting technologies to this new situation.
SESSION 2: LATE PALAEOLITHIC SITES AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT
Bjørn Smit
Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
[email protected]
Over the past ten years the majority of archaeological research in the Netherlands is performed within the
realm of developer-paid archaeology. During these years hundreds of new sites from all periods have
been discovered. It is no secret that the number of Stone Age sites discovered and, more importantly,
preserved in situ or excavated is low compared to sites from later periods. Even more critically, the
number of sites dating to the Late Palaeolithic and discovered in the context of ‘Malta archaeology’ in
northern Netherlands can be counted on one hand. Several reasons for this might be suggested: the total
number of Late Palaeolithic sites is just too small and/or the sites are difficult to detect due to their small
size and low densities of stone artefacts. Also, sites may be rather ‘invisible’ because they are covered by
a layer of sediment. Furthermore one might wonder whether the basic characteristics of these sites in
terms of size, nature and site location are known to every archaeologist. In the paper problems related to
the detection of Late Palaeolithic sites will be presented and suggestions for future research will be done.
Leo Tebbens
BAAC, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
[email protected]
Early (?) Ahrensburg-hunters in the southern Netherlands. New interdisciplinary research near
Geldrop.
In 2009 the national highway A2 was expanded in the area of the scheduled, archaeological monument
Leenderheide. During early preparation of the terrain, two coversand riges overlying the interstadial
Usselo soil were cut in the immediate vicinity of a cluster of Late Palaeolithic sites and a nearby
depression. In view of the high archaeological importance of the terrain and the high expectation with
respect to finding traces of Late Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer camps, archaeological research was carried
out by BAAC in 2010. During this research, (part of) an Ahrensburg site with flint tools and flint debitage
was unearthed.
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An interdisciplinary research was carried out and will be presented in this talk. Results of
geomorphological research, soil science and micromorphological research will be confronted with the
results of archaeology (flint tools, ochre stains, debitage, hearth). Flint tool analysis indicates the presence
of Ahrensburg hunter-gatherers, which is in line with the results of OSL-dating. The pitfalls of 14Cdating will be discussed in view of some problems that were encountered when dating large fragments of
charred wood. The rather early dates (clustering around 10.950 14C-yr BP) suggest a very early
Ahrensburg site (on typological grounds), but are not consistent with other dates. We would like to
discuss these findings in relation to the high quality of the site itself (a site that was undisturbed for at
least 12.600 years and for which bioturbation was insignifcant).
SESSION 3: THE INFLUENCE OF THE LANDSCAPE ON THE RECOLONIZATION OF THE NORTH
EUROPEAN PLAIN
Jan Michal Burdukiewicz, Magdalena Koralewicz and Dagmara Samulik
Institute of Archaeology, University of Wroclaw, Poland
e-mail: [email protected]
Between Magdalenian and Hamburgian – the site Wroclaw-Zerniki 25
During preventive excavations on ring road of Wroclaw city in 2007 a new site Wroclaw-Zerniki 25 was
found, which has features of both Magdalenian and Hamburgian. Another advantage of wide-ranging
excavations is its interdisciplinary character. There are applied numerous natural science methods
focusing on palaeoecological setting and postdepositional site formation process. The new equipment,
like total and smart stations, allows fast 3D recording of data and spatial analysis. Analytical geochemical
and spectrographic methods enable much more extensive research on natural resources used by
prehistoric societies.
The archaeological site Wroclaw-Zerniki 25 (AZP 79-27-121) is located in western part of the city, in the
valley of Ślęza river (116,8 m a.s.l.). Recent river channel is about 150 m to east from the site. The river
flowed throughout Weichselian deposits forming 300 m width and 5 m deep valley, filled up by Late
Glacial river sands and loess deposits, covered later by Holocene clay. The artifacts were found just
below recent humus layer, in dusty and clayish sediments with fine sand and gravel admixture. According
to RAMAC/GPR and the air photograph analysis, the site Wroclaw-Zerniki 25 is located nearby buried
oxbow-lake located from western side of the site. The Magdalenian artifact concentration is oval in shape,
18 m long and 14 m wide. There were ca. 4500 flint artifacts, including 129 cores and 154 retouched
tools, like end scrapers, burins, perforators, backed bladelets, truncations, shouldered points and the
others. The main distinct features of Magdalenian are fine blade technology and presence of several
backed bladelets, which is not recognizable in the Hamburgian.
The artifacts were found in sediment 40 cm thick, but they were mainly located in layer 20 cm thick. In
the center of lithic concentration was found a fireplace 1.22 m long and 0.98 m wide. From western side
of the fireplace was found concentration of the stone slabs (quartzite sandstone) 1 or 2 cm thick, which
refit into few bigger stone slabs. They are possibly remains of a floor in entrance zone of supposed tent
from a beach of oxbow-lake.
Similar lithic concentrations are known from the Magdalenian sites in Eastern Germany, in particular
from Groitsch in Saxony. In Groitsch, the comparable large lithic concentrations and numerous stone
slabs are present. The new lithic concentration from Wroclaw-Zerniki distinguishes by relatively high
amount of cores comparing to small number of retouched tools. The most possibly the other tools were
taken out of the campsite. The occurrence of some forms of retouched tools, like shouldered points may
be seen as a feature of Magdalenian IV phase, which existed in Central Europe during Bølling interstadial
(14.7–14 ka cal BP), that is somewhat younger than another new Magdalenian site in DzierŜysław near
Głubczyce in Upper Silesia.
Wroclaw-Zerniki is the first rich Magdalenian site filling a gape between Magdalenian sites in SouthEastern Germany and South-Eastern Poland uplands. In addition, Wroclaw-Zerniki is located in southern
part of Silesian Lowland but still covered by loess, so close to Hamburgian sites in northern part of Lower
Silesia.
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Jacek Kabaciński
Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Poznan, Poland
[email protected]
Chronology of the Hamburgian Settlement at Mirkowice from palaeoenvironmental perspective
Of twenty Hamburgian hunters-gatherers occupations and tracers of penetration known from the territory
of Poland at only one site – Mirkowice – a developed biogenic and mineral Late Glacial sequence related
to the site was recorded, which allows an extensive palaeoenvironmental studies. The site at Mirkowice
(Western Poland) is also the only directly radiocarbon-dated site in Poland. The paper discuss all
available 14C dates of the Late Glacial sequence, including a new series of radiocarbon dates, as well as
the site dating in relation to paleoenvironmental data form the site and reconstructed Late Glacial
palaeoenvironment of the area.
Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka
Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Poznan, Poland
[email protected]
Preliminary reconstruction of palaeonvironemntal conditions on Late Glacial site at Lubrza,
Western Poland
Site no. 42 at Lubrza is located in Western Poland, within the area called Łagów Lake District. Whole the
area is characterized by young moraine landscape including numerous glacial lakes. In the central and
south-eastern part of the excavated area seven concentrations of flint artefacts were recorded with over
10.000 lithics in total. Two of them – no. 1 and 5 are related to Federmesser culture. The next three ones
are associated with the settlement of the Sviderian community (concentration 2, 3 and 7) and one
concentration with Mesolithic community.
Recently, a core comprising an undisturbed sequence of biogenic layers covering the entire section of the
Late Glacial and early Holocene was obtained near the archaeological site 42 in Lubrza, located in the
Lubuskie Lake District. The results of radiocarbon dating of plant macroremains allowed to determine
the age of the oldest level of biogenic accumulation to 12,000 ± 60 BP (Poz-31273) and its continuation
in the younger periods of the Late Glacial and the Holocene.
Based on the results of archaeobotanical studies an attempt to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental conditions
at the time of Late Glacial settlement was undertaken.
V.SegliĦš and Ilga Zagorska
Archaeological Department, University of Riga, Latvia
[email protected]
The Late Palaeolithic landscape and the routes of arrival of the first inhabitants
During the period 13–12K BP most of the Latvia became ice-free, excluding the northern and northwest
parts, still occupied by a limited area of ice-deglaciation activities. Close to 30-35% of the ice-free areas
was covered by postglacial lakes and temporary watersheds. The rest of area was terrestrial, with a limited
variation in elevation, not exceeding 120–150 m, where permafrost still limited the development of soils,
and of tree and shrub vegetation. Major development of landslides, solifluction and ravines was common
on hill-slopes and the shores of waterbodies.
Soils were at the beginning of their development and the character of the vegetation varied, adapted to
local climatic conditions, lichens, grasses and shrubs still being widely represented in tundra
environments. Small rodents, hare, fox and wolf are constantly present in the area, the predators following
the migration routes of their main food source – reindeer.
The reindeer was the most characteristic element of the Late Glacial fauna in the eastern Baltic. The
remains of reindeer in Latvia are dated approximately to the period 11500 to 9500 cal. BC. Some of the
mammoth bones in Latvia and Estonia are the same age.
Testifying to the presence of the earliest inhabitants of this area are stray finds of flint tools, archaic forms
of bone and antler harpoons and one settlement site with a rich flint inventory. The distribution of the
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artefacts and likewise that of the sub-fossil reindeer bone remains clearly indicates the routes of arrival of
the reindeer hunters in this area.
Suitable locations for settlements could be found on the high terraces of the main rivers, former islands in
the rivers and the former ice-marginal basins, which had developed into lakes. Rapids and shallow
stretches of the river are still present today near the places previously occupied by the reindeer hunters.
The ancient hunters reached the territory of present-day Latvia mainly from southern regions, from the
River Dnieper up to the Vistula and the Carpathian mountains.
Sonja B. Grimm
Department of Palaeolithic Studies of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Schloss Monrepos,
Neuwied, Germany
[email protected]
Into the great wide open - Marginalization as a motor of the Lateglacial expansion into northern
Europe
Marginalization of the environment in Northern Europe was considered as a restrictive factor in the
Lateglacial expansion onto the North European Plain. However, this assumption referred to a type of
marginalization which is assessed by permafrost soils and sparse vegetation in the Late Weichselian.
However, according to the environmental indications known from the earliest sites on the North European
Plain such as Meiendorf or Slotseng this type of sub-marginal landscape was still prevalent when the first
humans associated with the Hamburgian entered Northern Europe.
Techno-typological studies demonstrated that the origin of the Hamburgian must be sought in a Late
Magdalenian substratum of Western and Central Europe. If the environmental indications for the
landscape where this Late Magdalenian was found are compared to those of the first settled Northern
European landscape the ecological setting appears very similar. Moreover, the assemblages known from
Late Magdalenian sites characterize their creators as skilled hunters who were well adapted to landscapes
with sparse vegetation and occasional permafrost. Therefore, why were the harsh northern environments
only settled in this archaeologically sudden wave of the Hamburgian expansion?
Using a comparative approach based on the evolution of behaviour, demographic constraints, and
ethnographic analogies of the cross-cultural standard data the availability of prey species appeared as the
significant factor in restricting human settlement of northern habitats. Hence, the alteration of this
important factor as a result of the northward spread of denser vegetation after the end of the Heinrich 1
event and the following onset of the Lateglacial Interstadial in fact represented a real marginalization of
the landscape already inhabited by the Late Magdalenian hunters and led to the northward expansion of
the followers of this way of life as an alternative to adapting to the increasingly marginalized
environments in Western and Central Europe.
Morten Fischer Mortensen
The National Museum of Denmark, Danish Prehistory and Environmental Archaeology, Denmark
[email protected]
Environmental preconditions for the late glacial colonisation of Denmark
The landscape of Denmark was radically transformed through the late glacial with the immigration of
new vegetation types, the formation of new habitats and the development of new ecosystems. These
changes also affected resource areas and the living conditions of the late glacial cultures. Through a
continuing research project we are reconstructing the vegetational development in Demark throughout the
late glacial period and present her some provisional results.
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Inga Kretschmer
University of Cologne, Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology, Cologne, Germany
[email protected]
Palaeodemography of the European Late Upper Palaeolithic
The PhD-Project “Analysis of the Palaeodemography of hunters and gatherers of the Late Upper
Palaeolithic in Europe” is part of the Collaborative Research Centre 806 “Our way to Europe“ funded by
the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The project investigates the demography of Late Upper
Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer populations, when Europe was repopulated after the Last Glacial Maximum.
The aim is to develop a method for estimating regional differentiated population densities and to
investigate the associated settlement patterns.
A method based on GIS techniques is used to upscale archaeological data from selected key sites and key
regions to culturally homogenous contextual areas in Europe. Based on the spatial density of Late Upper
Palaeolithic sites, GIS-calculated regions are interpreted as indicators for settlement areas of Magdalenian
and Hamburgian hunter-gatherer groups.
The relative size of these settlement areas in comparison to site catchments, as indicated by the pattern of
raw material procurement, is thought to be indicative for the number of forager groups in a region.
Ethnographic records relating to hunter-gatherer societies practicing similar subsistence strategies as
those applied by Magdalenian hunters and gatherers are taken to reconstruct the size of prehistoric groups
to estimate the probable number of people per settlement region.
These results are compared with on-site information about settlement sizes, duration of stay and
seasonality to contribute to our understanding of the regional diversity and spatial patterns of Palaeolithic
hunter-gatherer populations in Europe.
Jörg Holzkämper and Andreas Maier
University of Cologne, Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Cologne, Germany
[email protected]
New results on the recolonization of Western Germany after the Last Glacial Maximum
The Rhine-Meuse region and the neighbouring Westphalia are important key areas for the Collaborative
Research Centre 806 which investigates the expansion of early modern humans and the resettlement of
Western Central Europe after the LGM. According to current knowledge the Magdalenian colonization
reaches the Low Mountain range of the Rhine-Meuse region and the Rhenish Massif around 16.000
calBP. From about 15.000 calBP onwards, the North European Plain is colonized by hunter-gatherers of
the Hamburgian and Creswellian. Conspicuously, a broad corridor with a width of up to 100 km, which
stretches between the settlement area of the Magdalenian and the Hamburgian and includes the whole
Westphalian Bay, yielded no archaeological finds of this period so far.
New archaeological evidences shed new light on the recolonisation of this region and speak in favour of a
first resettlement of the Westphalian Bay during the Upper-/ Late Palaeolithic transition between 14,000
and 13,500 calBP (GI 1c3). Here, the selection of site locations seems regularly connected to slightly
elevated positions in the vicinity of water expanses. The assemblages and imported raw materials of
several sites point to a social network that span from the North European Plain to the Rhine-Meuse
region. In addition to base and hunting camps, the contemporaneous burial sites of Bonn-Oberkassel and
Irlich-Sandgrube point towards a complex settlement system at that time.
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Martin Street
Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for the Evolution of Hominin Behaviour,
Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, Germany
[email protected]
The onset of Late Glacial Greenland Interstadial (GI 1) in the Central Rhineland of Germany. Can
we identify ephemeral human occupation?
The Neuwied Basin in the German Central Rhineland is a favoured region for the investigation of Late
Glacial settlement. The eruption of tephra of the Laacher See volcano (~ 11,000 14C BP) engulfed an
entire landscape, effectively sealing a number of larger and smaller archaeological and palaeontological
localities beneath deep ash deposits and preserving them from obliteration by erosion until the present
day. The majority of the archaeological sites can be assigned to the Federmessergruppen and date to the
later part of Greenland Interstadial I. This is equivalent to the open woodland Allerød pollen zone and
remains of hunted animals come from species typical of this environment. Radiocarbon dates for this
phase range from ~ 11,800 to 11,300 14C BP. Two important archaeological sites - Gönnersdorf and
Andernach-Martinsberg - are appreciably older and represent major Magdalenian settlements. Located
very close to each other at the north-western edge of the open Neuwied Basin, the sites are
contemporaneous at the resolution of radiocarbon dating (13,000 14C BP) and extremely similar in terms
of their technology and spatial organisation. The hunted animals represented at the sites are those adapted
to the steppe-tundra conditions of the cold and dry late Greenland Stadial 1 (GS 1). Whereas the two
phases – Magdalenian and Federmessergruppen - are well characterized in the region, the intermediate
period is very poorly understood. At Gönnersdorf, it had been suggested that a small amount of lithic,
structural and faunal material from the south-western edge of the excavated area might be younger than
the Magdalenian settlement. At Andernach, a small number of horse remains showed anomalous
preservation compared with the large number of Magdalenian horse remains. Targeted radiocarbon dating
of specimens from both sites produced ages between those for the Magdalenian and Federmessergruppen.
They appear to confirm an ephemeral human presence in the Central Rhineland, probably at the beginning
of the Late Glacial Greenland Interstadial (GI 1e), a phase of human expansion into the unoccupied North
and emergence of new cultural groups (Hamburgian, Creswellian). While the strength of this hypothesis
can be tested by new radiocarbon dates on selected material, the implications of such an intermediate
phase for our understanding of the process of change from the loess steppe Magdalenian to the Allerød
woodland Federmessergruppen in the Central Rhineland remain unclear.
Marijn Van Gils, Etienne Paulissen, Bart Vanmontfort, Marc De Bie, Jan Bastiaens and
Ferdi Geerts
Flemish Heritage Institute, Brussels and Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
[email protected]
The impact of Late Glacial landscape changes on settlement locations in coversand areas. The
evidence for northeastern Belgium.
Over the past decade, research has provided better insight in settlement systems in the coversand areas,
mainly characterized by gentle landforms with height differences of maximal 5 m. Dry land bordering
open water has attracted recurrent hunter-gather occupation during both the Final Palaeolithic and the
Mesolithic. This resulted in very large and rich site complexes, consisting of spatial and cumulative
palimpsests of artifact concentrations. Moving away from the water as little as 50 to 150 m, the number of
artifact concentrations gradually decreases until only isolated scatters are found. Many questions remain
concerning the precise nature, functionality, and relationship between these site complexes and the
isolated scatters, but their correlation with the natural landscape is very strong.
In the coversand area of NE Belgium, the Holocene landscape remained mainly stable and often coincides
with the present topography, except for antropogenically induced drift sands, Holocene accumulations in
some valley bottoms and artificial drainages. During the Dryas periods, and mainly during the Younger
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Dryas it is generally accepted that the physical landscape was affected by deflation and aeolian
accumulation. The scale and the intensities of these landscape changes however, and their effect on
settlement location are yet uncertain. Did they occur without affecting the overall topography, or did they
change the micromorphology of entire landscapes? And were these changes important enough to affect
settlement location?
Younger Dryas accumulations are mostly evidenced by the presence of sediment deposits overlaying a
whitish palaeosol or peat layer of Allerød age. The presence of bleached layers is however often difficult
to observe, or even absent, and the reconstruction of its aerial extension requires intensive
geomorphological and stratigraphical study. In NE Belgium several Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
sites with soils of Allerød age, eventually grading into peat deposits, have been studied (Arendonk
Korhaan, Lommel Maatheide and Lommel Molse Nete). They contain not only the typical Usselo soil, but
also synchronous pedological variations. Deflation and aeolian accumulation during the Younger Dryas
had different impacts on the Allerød topography, which is reflected in the location of the hunter-gatherer
occupation and preservation of the archaeological sites. These observations result into new insights in the
continuity/discontinuity of settlement systems from the Final Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic.
POSTER SESSION:
W. Mills and R.N.E. Barton
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
[email protected]
New directions of fieldwork at Lateglacial open-air sites in Britain
A new programme of work is being planned for various Federmesser open-air sites in Britain. The
approach combines re-study of museum collections from known sites (Brockhill, La Sagesse,
Hengistbury, Nea Farm) as well as some targeted fieldwork at old and new locations. The aim of this
project is consider the importance of river networks such as the Avon and Test valleys in the placement of
sites and as a likely means of inter-site communication.
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