Wetland landscape dynamics, Swifterbant land use systems, and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern North Sea basin (original) (raw)
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Over the last decade, excavations in the lower Scheldt river basin (NW Belgium) have identified the first presence of the transitional MesolithiceNeolithic Swifterbant culture, previously only known from the Netherlands and one site in northwest Germany. These excavations have also yielded the first evidence for the presence of Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik, Limbourg, Blicquy and Epi-R€ ossen cultural remains in these wetland landscapes. High quality organic preservation at these sites offered the opportunity to reliably place the Swifterbant within the absolute chronology of the MesolithiceNeolithic transition in this region, as well as the reconstruction of Swifterbant subsistence practices, most notably the incorporation of cattle husbandry into a traditional hunting-fishing-gathering economy. Two different site types could be identified between the six excavated sites e dune and natural levee sites e which had contemporaneous periods of occupation, but different occupation histories. The integration of the dates from these different site types with the palaeoenvironmental dates provides an initial model of the Swifterbant settlement system in the area and its role in the specific tempo and trajectories of cultural and economic change that occurred during the neolithisation of the Scheldt basin. This model consists of relatively specialized and temporarily inhabited cattle and hunting-fishing camps on the dunes and larger, more continuously occupied levee camps along the river valleys. Bayesian statistical modeling suggests that Swifterbant occupation of the dune sites occurred during a brackish water flooding period and that occupation of the levee sites was more continuous.
Radiocarbon, 2014
The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the wetland margins of the southern North Sea basin occurred well over a millennium after the transition in neighboring loess regions. This article investigates the possible role of hydrological dynamics in the presence of the last hunter-gatherer-fishermen in these wetland regions. A Bayesian modeling approach is used to integrate stratigraphic information and radiocarbon dates both from accurately datable archaeological remains and key horizons in peat sequences in the Scheldt floodplain of northwestern Belgium. This study tests whether the Swifterbant occupation of the study area was contemporaneous with hiatuses in peat growth caused by organic clastic sedimentation due to increased tidal influences and local groundwater rise. The results suggest that the appearance of this culture followed shortly after the emergence of a brackish tidal mudflat landscape replacing a freshwater marsh.
2015
Since the last decades, well preserved Late Glacial dune formations containing numerous prehistoric sites buried deeply below peat, OM rich clays and marine clayey to sandy sediments have been discovered during extensive construction works in the harbor of Antwerp situated in the lower Scheldt river basin in northwest Belgium. Archaeological excavations have identified the first presence of the transitional Mesolithic-Neolithic Swifterbant culture, previously only known from sites in the Netherlands and one site in northwest Germany, and evidence for the presence of other Final Paleolithic to Early Neolithic cultural remains. High quality organic preservation at these sites have offered the opportunity to reliably place Swifterbant occupation within the absolute chronology of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in this region, as well as the reconstruction of Swifterbant subsistence practices, most notably the incorporation of cattle husbandry into a traditional hunting-fishing-gath...
Evidence of human impact on the vegetation obtained from pollen diagrams at sites in the process of neolithisation is often difficult to detect. Apart from aspects like site function and occupation intensity, methodological aspects play a considerable role. In the Rhine-Meuse delta in the Netherlands, neolithisation is documented at the Final Mesolithic sites Hardinxveld-Giessendam Polderweg and Hardinxveld-Giessendam De Bruin and the local Early Neolithic sites of Brandwijk-Kerkhof and the Hazendonk, covering the period of 5500–2500 cal. b.c. The off-site core from Hardinxveld-Giessendam De Bruin supports earlier results that human influence on the vegetation at Hardinxveld is restricted and difficult to distinguish from natural vegetation disturbance. Human impact is more easily recognisable in the diagrams of Neolithic phases at Brandwijk-Kerkhof and the Hazendonk that show evidence of both domestic animals and cereals. Continuing neolithisation and also research methodology, including the location of the pollen cores, may play a role in this. It is tested whether the use of a new pollen sum excluding extra-regional taxa increases the visibility of human impact. Keywords: Neolithisation, Human impact, Pollen sum, Palynological methodology, Mesolithic, Swifterbant culture.
2011
Situated along the southern fringe of the North Sea basin, northwest Belgium holds great potential for understanding hunter-gatherer responses to environmental change at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Recent intensive fieldwork has yielded valuable data on the palaeoenvironment, chronology, and hunter-gatherer mobility and land use in this region. At the Late Glacial/Early Holocene transition this region was comprised of a landscape of coversand ridges and lakes that flanked the northern part of the Scheldt river basin. This landscape was highly productive for hunter-gatherer populations. As the landscape developed in response to the increasing water table caused by the inundation of the North Sea populations responded by changing their forms of mobility and land use. These changes are indicated by the reduction in the number and density of sites, as well as their geographical settings, from the Late Glacial (Federmesser) and Early Mesolithic to the Middle-Final Mesolithic. Late Glacial/Early Mesolithic sites indicate much higher mobility comprised of rapid displacements of camps and re-occupation of the same coversand ridges over long time-spans. Middle/Late Mesolithic sites indicate a reduction in mobility, increasing focus on prolonged riverside settlement, and a more rigid organization of residential sites.
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, 2016
This paper describes the landscape evolution of the Waasland Scheldt polders in the north of Belgium from the Late Glacial – early Holocene to the present time, and the effects of this changing landscape on the human settlement. The regional landscape evolution has been visualised in a series of palaeogeographical maps for successive time frames. Two different map series were produced: a series of Holocene palaeogeographical reconstructions (11,000–950 cal BP) based on geotechnical, geological and archaeological data, and a series of post-Medieval landscape reconstructions (16th- to 19th-century) based on historical maps, land registers and soil data. Additional palaeoenvironmental information from fossil pollen and plant remains allowed reconstruction of the vegetation and wetland changes, particularly for the middle to late Holocene. Peat growth was the main key to understanding the landscape evolution of the Waasland Scheldt polders. Whereas the landscape evolution during the Hol...
Quaternaire, 2014
The analysis of a large number of charcoal fragments from fire places from a wetland camp site of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition period (Swifterbant culture) now permits a detailed reconstruction of a middle Holocene riverine forest along the Lower Scheldt River (northern Belgium) and its exploitation between ca. 4,500 and 4,000 BC. The identified taxa point towards an alluvial hardwood forest (Querco-Ulmetum minoris Issler 1924) on the sand dune on which the camp site was situated, surrounded by alder carr. The results are compared with palynological and macrobotanical analyses from the same site and from contemporary sites within the area; the complementarity of these different types of data is discussed. The combination of all these datasets results in a detailed reconstruction of the environment and of its exploitation by the Swifterbant culture. The results also show that the Swifterbant people not only depended on these sand ridges for dry settlement locations, but also for firewood collection, gathering of edible plants and most probably for the collection of leaf fodder to feed livestock during winter time.
2020
This publication presents the results of the 2005–2007 excavations at Swifterbant S4, carried out by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology. S4 is a well-preserved Neolithic wetland site (c. 4300–4000 cal. BC) located within the Swifterbant river system in the Netherlands. We present the landscape setting, the various finds categories and the spatial patterns with three research themes in mind. Theme 1 concerns the environmental setting, subsistence and site function. We conclude that the Swifterbant hunter-gatherer-farmers exploited a mosaic-type landscape. Theme 2 deals with developments in site function during the occupation and exploitation history of the site. This analysis leads to the observation that episodes of cultivation and settlement alternated at S4. Theme 3, the use of space, was difficult to study due to the fragmented nature of the excavation plan. This site monograph makes Swifterbant-S4 the most comprehensively published site of the Swifterbant river system.
Cultural Landscapes and Neolithisation Processes: Outline of a model for the Scheldt basin (Belgium)
Recent research has indicated the continuation of a hunting-fishing-gathering way of life in the lower Scheldt basin for over a millennium after the first arrival of agriculture in the middle Scheldt. Current evidence suggests multiple hiatuses in cultural change from the late 6th-late 5th millennium BC. This paper provides the outline of a model that seeks to explain these hiatuses from the perspective of indigenous hunter-fisher-gatherer cultural landscapes. The outline investigates the significance of palaeoecological and social contexts in relation to cultural transmission processes during the transition to agriculture. Recent ethnoarchaeological research from hunter-fisher-gatherers in temperate and boreal environments is referenced as a structural analogy for illuminating the important relationship between territoriality and social mediation within hunter-gatherer groups at the Mesolithic-Neolithic interface.