DOI Kapitel:
Grenzgänger, traders and the last hunter-gatherers of the North European Plain
DOI Kapitel:Mahlstedt, Svea; Karle, Martina; Kegler, Jan F.: Foraging in a changing landscape – the Late Mesolithic in the coastal area of Lower Saxony
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0189
188
Foraging in a changing landscape - the late Mesolithic in the coastal area of Lower Saxony
ment a later Mesolithic habitation. One of them is a
single pit with charcoal discovered during the build-
ing of a pipeline close to the village of Osteel (com-
mune Brookmerland / district Aurich; Heun 1994;
see Fig. 1,4)- It was dug into the Pleistocene sands
and later covered by basal peat and marine sedi-
ments. The surrounding area was not investigated
by excavations. The other site with a late Mesolithic
structure is situated close to the village of Coldinne
(commune GroBheide / district Aurich; Fig. 1,5) and
was excavated in the 1980s by a group of amateur
archaeologists (Kitz 1986). The find layer was dam-
aged by modern ploughing. Only a single fire pit was
preserved together with a quantity of flint artefacts
and charcoal remains found in mixed sediments. It
cannot be distinguished whether the site residues are
the result of one or more settlement events. A single
radiocarbon date has provided an age between 5,625
and 5,480 calBC (Table 1).
The most difficult task is to obtain chronological
references for the surface sites. They can be recog-
nised as Mesolithic by the appearance of microliths as
well as small blade cores and sometimes flaked core
axes. As in the neighbouring areas, there is a tendency
among the stone tools from East Frisia for micro-
points and triangular microliths to already appear
during the first half of the Mesolithic (Boreal), thus
prior to approximately 6,600 calBC (Newell 1973;
Niekus 2006). They stay in use, while trapeze-shaped
microliths appear during the Atlantic, which in East
Frisia is contemporary with the second half of the
Mesolithic. Up to now it is not clear what happened
in East Frisia at the end of the Mesolithic, whether
there was a transitional period to the Neolithic like
in the later phases of the Swifterbant culture in the
Netherlands and possibly in the Dummer area. There
seems to be an ongoing flint tradition in the late Me-
solithic around the time when the Swifterbant culture
develops. The best example is the typical microlith
type of the late Mesolithic, the trapeze-shaped mi-
crolith. Trapezes can be found in the context of late
Mesolithic / Swifterbant sites in the Netherlands
(Raemaekers / Niekus 2009, 719). The situation was
likely quite similar in East Frisia, where surface sites
cannot be distinguished to belong to one or the other
period. It is only in the course of the Swifterbant
period that trapezes seem to become broader and
are thus recognisable as Swifterbant culture items,
as shown for the Netherlands (Niekus 2008, 59-60).
In her evaluation of surface sites from north-
western Germany one of the authors has been able
to identify some characteristics of the Mesolithic use
of the landscape (Mahlstedt 2015). 35 East Frisian
sites were considered in her study. They differ in size,
age and topographical situation. In other sampling
areas of western Lower Saxony, sites from the second
half of the Mesolithic after 6,600 calBC containing
trapezes are quite often situated in lower and wetter
positions than the earlier ones. For East Frisia, the
overall impression is that most of the lower situated
and possibly younger sites along the coast may have
been covered by swamp sediments, or as a result of
flood events, or by peat growth.
Valuable stray finds and some new
dating results
While Mesolithic sites from the East Frisian penin-
sula show an enormous overweight in flint surface
scatters compared to all other site types, there are
nearly no Mesolithic flint objects among the stray
finds from the Wadden Sea. Not least, this can be
traced back to material properties. Finds are eroded
from deeper findlayers offshore and washed onto the
beaches, where they can be collected from the surface
at low tide. To undergo such a process successfully
a find must have a certain low specific weight. That
might explain at least partly why most Mesolithic
finds from the Wadden Sea are of bone and antler.
In 2016 the Archaeological Heritage Manage-
ment of the ‘Ostfriesische Landschaft’ received a
human mandible which was found at the northern
shore of the island of Spiekeroog (Figs. 1,3; 3). It
had a dark to black colour, due to a covering of iron
sulphate. Surprisingly, in 2018 a second human man-
dible was discovered at the island of Baltrum (Figs.
1,2; 3). Both objects showed similar anthropologi-
cal characteristics and were classified as ‘archaic’
(Kegler / Grefen-Peters 2019a; b).
The Spiekeroog mandible was not complete: The
arched lower jaw is preserved, but not the lower jaw
branches. The molars are strongly abraded. The lat-
erally bulging corpus and V-shaped dental arch, as
well as the low profile of the chin, suggest archaic
features. The mandible must have belonged to a very
sturdy male (branch angle approx. 140°). The ad-
vanced abrasion of the dentition makes an age of the
individual of at least 40 years very likely.
The Baltrum mandible can probably also be at-
tributed to a male individual because of its robust-
ness. However, we do not exclude a female attribution
because of the large branch angle. The abrasion of
the teeth makes a time of death between 20 and 50
years of age likely. The AMS-dates of both mandibles
point to a Stone Age context. The Spiekeroog man-
Foraging in a changing landscape - the late Mesolithic in the coastal area of Lower Saxony
ment a later Mesolithic habitation. One of them is a
single pit with charcoal discovered during the build-
ing of a pipeline close to the village of Osteel (com-
mune Brookmerland / district Aurich; Heun 1994;
see Fig. 1,4)- It was dug into the Pleistocene sands
and later covered by basal peat and marine sedi-
ments. The surrounding area was not investigated
by excavations. The other site with a late Mesolithic
structure is situated close to the village of Coldinne
(commune GroBheide / district Aurich; Fig. 1,5) and
was excavated in the 1980s by a group of amateur
archaeologists (Kitz 1986). The find layer was dam-
aged by modern ploughing. Only a single fire pit was
preserved together with a quantity of flint artefacts
and charcoal remains found in mixed sediments. It
cannot be distinguished whether the site residues are
the result of one or more settlement events. A single
radiocarbon date has provided an age between 5,625
and 5,480 calBC (Table 1).
The most difficult task is to obtain chronological
references for the surface sites. They can be recog-
nised as Mesolithic by the appearance of microliths as
well as small blade cores and sometimes flaked core
axes. As in the neighbouring areas, there is a tendency
among the stone tools from East Frisia for micro-
points and triangular microliths to already appear
during the first half of the Mesolithic (Boreal), thus
prior to approximately 6,600 calBC (Newell 1973;
Niekus 2006). They stay in use, while trapeze-shaped
microliths appear during the Atlantic, which in East
Frisia is contemporary with the second half of the
Mesolithic. Up to now it is not clear what happened
in East Frisia at the end of the Mesolithic, whether
there was a transitional period to the Neolithic like
in the later phases of the Swifterbant culture in the
Netherlands and possibly in the Dummer area. There
seems to be an ongoing flint tradition in the late Me-
solithic around the time when the Swifterbant culture
develops. The best example is the typical microlith
type of the late Mesolithic, the trapeze-shaped mi-
crolith. Trapezes can be found in the context of late
Mesolithic / Swifterbant sites in the Netherlands
(Raemaekers / Niekus 2009, 719). The situation was
likely quite similar in East Frisia, where surface sites
cannot be distinguished to belong to one or the other
period. It is only in the course of the Swifterbant
period that trapezes seem to become broader and
are thus recognisable as Swifterbant culture items,
as shown for the Netherlands (Niekus 2008, 59-60).
In her evaluation of surface sites from north-
western Germany one of the authors has been able
to identify some characteristics of the Mesolithic use
of the landscape (Mahlstedt 2015). 35 East Frisian
sites were considered in her study. They differ in size,
age and topographical situation. In other sampling
areas of western Lower Saxony, sites from the second
half of the Mesolithic after 6,600 calBC containing
trapezes are quite often situated in lower and wetter
positions than the earlier ones. For East Frisia, the
overall impression is that most of the lower situated
and possibly younger sites along the coast may have
been covered by swamp sediments, or as a result of
flood events, or by peat growth.
Valuable stray finds and some new
dating results
While Mesolithic sites from the East Frisian penin-
sula show an enormous overweight in flint surface
scatters compared to all other site types, there are
nearly no Mesolithic flint objects among the stray
finds from the Wadden Sea. Not least, this can be
traced back to material properties. Finds are eroded
from deeper findlayers offshore and washed onto the
beaches, where they can be collected from the surface
at low tide. To undergo such a process successfully
a find must have a certain low specific weight. That
might explain at least partly why most Mesolithic
finds from the Wadden Sea are of bone and antler.
In 2016 the Archaeological Heritage Manage-
ment of the ‘Ostfriesische Landschaft’ received a
human mandible which was found at the northern
shore of the island of Spiekeroog (Figs. 1,3; 3). It
had a dark to black colour, due to a covering of iron
sulphate. Surprisingly, in 2018 a second human man-
dible was discovered at the island of Baltrum (Figs.
1,2; 3). Both objects showed similar anthropologi-
cal characteristics and were classified as ‘archaic’
(Kegler / Grefen-Peters 2019a; b).
The Spiekeroog mandible was not complete: The
arched lower jaw is preserved, but not the lower jaw
branches. The molars are strongly abraded. The lat-
erally bulging corpus and V-shaped dental arch, as
well as the low profile of the chin, suggest archaic
features. The mandible must have belonged to a very
sturdy male (branch angle approx. 140°). The ad-
vanced abrasion of the dentition makes an age of the
individual of at least 40 years very likely.
The Baltrum mandible can probably also be at-
tributed to a male individual because of its robust-
ness. However, we do not exclude a female attribution
because of the large branch angle. The abrasion of
the teeth makes a time of death between 20 and 50
years of age likely. The AMS-dates of both mandibles
point to a Stone Age context. The Spiekeroog man-