Hunter–gatherer responses to environmental change during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in the southern North Sea basin: Final Palaeolithic–Final Mesolithic land use in northwest Belgium (original) (raw)
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Quaternary International, 2013
This paper presents new geo-archaeological perspectives on the Late Glacial and Early Holocene human occupation around a large palaeolake, the Moervaart palaeolake (w25 km 2 ). Intensive fieldwork, using invasive and non-invasive survey techniques, combined with modelling of the palaeotopography and palaeogroundwater and multi-proxy palaeoecological analyses have resulted in a detailed reconstruction of the landscape during the Final Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic occupation of the area. A major shift in the occupation from the Federmesser Culture to the Early Mesolithic was contemporaneous with a sudden and drastic change in the palaeohydrology of the area between ca. 13,300 and 13,000 cal BP (end of Allerød), which coincided with a short but abrupt cooling event known as the Intra Allerød Cold Period (IACP) GI 1b. It is assumed that this event triggered the sudden drying up of the Moervaart palaeolake and surrounding ponds, which until then had provided Federmesser hunter-gatherers with extensive and fertile grounds for hunting, gathering and drinking water. The population decline which followed this hydrological event was reinforced by the prevailing cold and harsh conditions of the Younger Dryas and probably lasted until the Pre-boreal. Hunter-gatherers returned to the area in the Boreal, now settling along the proximal floodplain regions of a meandering channel which was connected with the southern Scheldt River.
2013
This paper presents new geo-archaeological perspectives on the Late Glacial and Early Holocene human occupation around a large palaeolake, the Moervaart palaeolake (∼25 km²). Intensive fieldwork, using invasive and non-invasive survey techniques, combined with modelling of the palaeotopography and palaeogroundwater and multi-proxy palaeoecological analyses have resulted in a detailed reconstruction of the landscape during the Final Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic occupation of the area. A major shift in the occupation from the Federmesser Culture to the Early Mesolithic was contemporaneous with a sudden and drastic change in the palaeohydrology of the area between ca. 13,300 and 13,000 cal BP (end of Allerød), which coincided with a short but abrupt cooling event known as the Intra Allerød Cold Period (IACP) GI 1b. It is assumed that this event triggered the sudden drying up of the Moervaart palaeolake and surrounding ponds, which until then had provided Federmesser hunter-gatherers with extensive and fertile grounds for hunting, gathering and drinking water. The population decline which followed this hydrological event was reinforced by the prevailing cold and harsh conditions of the Younger Dryas and probably lasted until the Pre-boreal. Hunter-gatherers returned to the area in the Boreal, now settling along the proximal floodplain regions of a meandering channel which was connected with the southern Scheldt River.
2010
Large-scale archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research in the Liereman Landscape (Landschap De Liereman) in the northern Campine (Belgium) revealed a very extensive and well-preserved prehistoric site complex at Arendonk Korhaan (fig. ). Remains include Final Palaeolithic scatters associated with the Usselo horizon buried below aeolian sand overlain by podzol soil containing Mesolithic assemblages. The Korhaan site complex is a rare example in this coversand area where Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic are separated stratigraphically. Combined with an intact toposequence (the Usselo horizon grading into peat deposits), this site offers unique potential for ongoing archaeological, geomorphological and palaeoecological research on Late Glacial and Early Holocene settlement systems. This paper outlines the discovery of the complex, presents some primary research results and discusses land use patterns of hunter-gatherers recurrently returning to persistent places across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.
2010
Large-scale archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research in the Liereman Landscape (Landschap De Liereman) in the northern Campine (Belgium) revealed a very extensive and well-preserved prehistoric site complex at Arendonk Korhaan (fig. ). Remains include Final Palaeolithic scatters associated with the Usselo horizon buried below aeolian sand overlain by podzol soil containing Mesolithic assemblages. The Korhaan site complex is a rare example in this coversand area where Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic are separated stratigraphically. Combined with an intact toposequence (the Usselo horizon grading into peat deposits), this site offers unique potential for ongoing archaeological, geomorphological and palaeoecological research on Late Glacial and Early Holocene settlement systems. This paper outlines the discovery of the complex, presents some primary research results and discusses land use patterns of hunter-gatherers recurrently returning to persistent places across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2021
This paper explores the impact of environmental, e.g. sea level rise, and climatic events, e.g. abrupt cooling events, on Mesolithic populations (ca. 11,350 to 6600 cal BP) living in the western Scheldt basin of Belgium and Northern France. The Mesolithic in this study-area has been extensively studied during the last few decades, leading to an extensive database of radiocarbon dates (n = 418), sites (n = 157) and excavated loci (n = 145). A multi-proxy analysis of this database reveals important changes both chronologically and geographically, which are interpreted in terms of population dynamics and changing mobility and land-use. The results suggest a population peak and high residential mobility in the Early Mesolithic, followed by a population shift and increased intra-basin mobility in the Middle Mesolithic, possibly triggered by the rapid inundation of the North Sea basin. The situation during the Late Mesolithic remains less clear but a possible reduction in the mobility seems likely. Currently there is little evidence supporting a causal link between these diachronic changes in human behavior and the 9.3 and 8.2 ka cooling events. Most of the observed changes seem more in response to long-term climatic and environmental changes during the Early and Middle Holocene, hinting at considerable resilience.
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.
Human resilience to Lateglacial climate and environmental change in the Scheldt basin (NW Belgium)
Recent palaeoenvironmental analyses in the Scheldt basin in NW Belgium have identified significant hydrological and vegetation changes between Greenland Interstadial-1b (GI-1b) and Greenland Stadial-1 (GS-1)/Younger Dryas (YD) that enable us to develop hypotheses to explain the radical changes in landuse and lithic technology observed between the Federmesser and post-Federmesser occupation of the region. The highly productive lacustrine environments of the lower Scheldt basin during the Allerød enabled relatively high population packing by Federmesser groups exploiting the region within a residential mobility system. Federmesser assemblages indicate a flexible lithic technology centered on the production of unstandardized blades and flakes that were intensively backed to shape various tool forms. The destabilization of these landscapes in the Scheldt basin between GI-1b and GS-1/YD, and the ensuing cold of the YD, changed the composition of important secondary biomass from less mobile ungulate species to seasonally mobile reindeer populations. Human populations were resilient to these changes by developing a highly standardized (micro)blade technology and microlithic toolkit.