DOI chapter:
Grenzgänger, traders and the last hunter-gatherers of the North European Plain
DOI chapter:Molthof, Helle M.; Baetsen, Steffen: Two new Swifterbant settlements at Nieuwegein-Het Klooster, the Netherlands: preliminary site interpretation and overview of human remains
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0087
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Two new Swifterbant settlements at Nieuwegein-Het Klooster, the Netherlands
legend
Nieuwegein - Het Klooster
Medel - De Roeskamp
Known Swifterbant sites
Fig. 1 Overview of main Swifterbant sites in the Netherlands and adjoining areas (after Raemaekers 1999, fig. 3.1 and Hogestijn /
Peeters 2001, fig. 62).
channel. The 2018/2019 campaign was carried out
on site B4/17, on the northern levee of the secondary
stream. On both sites, the levee consists of silty clay,
which was gradually covered with peat after the sites
were abandoned (Fig. 3). This stratigraphy, combined
with the fact that the find layer lies two metres below
the surface and permanently under groundwater level,
led to a very good preservation of the remains.
In the northwest, a coversand ridge is visible
(Fig. 2, orange), which has been investigated by an an-
gering survey (Jansen 2019). According to 14C-dates,
peat already covered the lower parts of the ridge by the
end of the Mesolithic, but the higher parts were prob-
ably still accessible in the Early Neolithic. Only a few
of the flint finds from the angering samples could be
attributed to a specific period. They date to the Middle
and/or Late Mesolithic, but it is possible that a part of
the rest of the assemblage dates to the Neolithic (Van
der Kroft / Molthof in prep.). Though it is unsure
whether the conditions on the coversand ridge were dry
enough for habitation during the Swifterbant period,
it is likely that the area could have been visited and
used by the people who lived at site 1 and site B4/17.1
1 As these business park plots will be turned into parking lots,
to prevent damage to the site and avoid the costs of excavation,
no further research is planned for the coversand ridge.
Two new Swifterbant settlements at Nieuwegein-Het Klooster, the Netherlands
legend
Nieuwegein - Het Klooster
Medel - De Roeskamp
Known Swifterbant sites
Fig. 1 Overview of main Swifterbant sites in the Netherlands and adjoining areas (after Raemaekers 1999, fig. 3.1 and Hogestijn /
Peeters 2001, fig. 62).
channel. The 2018/2019 campaign was carried out
on site B4/17, on the northern levee of the secondary
stream. On both sites, the levee consists of silty clay,
which was gradually covered with peat after the sites
were abandoned (Fig. 3). This stratigraphy, combined
with the fact that the find layer lies two metres below
the surface and permanently under groundwater level,
led to a very good preservation of the remains.
In the northwest, a coversand ridge is visible
(Fig. 2, orange), which has been investigated by an an-
gering survey (Jansen 2019). According to 14C-dates,
peat already covered the lower parts of the ridge by the
end of the Mesolithic, but the higher parts were prob-
ably still accessible in the Early Neolithic. Only a few
of the flint finds from the angering samples could be
attributed to a specific period. They date to the Middle
and/or Late Mesolithic, but it is possible that a part of
the rest of the assemblage dates to the Neolithic (Van
der Kroft / Molthof in prep.). Though it is unsure
whether the conditions on the coversand ridge were dry
enough for habitation during the Swifterbant period,
it is likely that the area could have been visited and
used by the people who lived at site 1 and site B4/17.1
1 As these business park plots will be turned into parking lots,
to prevent damage to the site and avoid the costs of excavation,
no further research is planned for the coversand ridge.