DOI chapter:
Grenzgänger, traders and the last hunter-gatherers of the North European Plain
DOI chapter:Mahlstedt, Svea; Karle, Martina; Kegler, Jan F.: Foraging in a changing landscape – the Late Mesolithic in the coastal area of Lower Saxony
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0192
Svea Mahlstedt, Martina Karie and Jan F. Kegler
191
that its former shape cannot be reconstructed. Thus,
a clear typological distinction is not possible. A re-
cent 14C-dating gave a result of c. 2,278-2,042 calBC
(Fig. 2; Table 1), which would be contemporary with
the transitional horizon between the Late Neolithic
Single Grave culture and the Early Bronze Age on
the North Sea coast. This goes well together with
the dates of antler axes with a rounded base from
the Scheid area in Belgium (Crombe et al. 2018),
and shows that this is no Mesolithic find at all. But
at least it is a witness of human inhabitation also at
times when most of the dry land in the area of the
recent Wadden Sea had likely vanished already.
Unfortunately, analogies in form of further ant-
ler axes are rare in East Frisia. There is only a single
undated find that was dug up by a dredge in the river
Ems in the western corner of the peninsula.
In the southern neighbourhood of East Frisia an
accumulation of antler axes is known from the area
of the Zwischenahner Meer, a freshwater lake. Here,
swimmers occasionally found antler axes (Zoller
1958). Most of these finds can be described as
T-shaped antler axes, but there is at least one axe
made of the basal section of a red deer antler, dating
to the time between 6,251 and 6,050 calBC. This axe
as well as one of the T-axes of the stray finds and a
new find from recent underwater excavations on the
site were directly dated (Mahlstedt et al. 2018a). The
T-shaped piece of the old finds dates to the middle of
the 5th millennium calBC, the new find is dated to the
first half of the 4th millenium calBC (Table 1). These
objects appear to have been in use for longer in this
area than in Scandinavia, as mentioned earlier (Dell-
brugge 2002, 44-45). In the Netherlands, Belgium,
and at Hude I, antler axes appear in Swifterbant and
contemporary contexts very regularly (Crombe et al.
1999, Deichmuller 1969; Werning 1983).
Ongoing research
The current state of research in the Wadden Sea
suggests a potential of finding Mesolithic sites.2 The
research project ‘Settlement and cultural history of
the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea Area’, however, dis-
covered only medieval to modern surface sites close
to the recent dyke; the oldest burials and settlement
remains are dated to the Roman Iron Age (Nieder-
hofer 2016).
2 Jons et al. 2012/2013; Goldhammer / Karle 2015; Nieder-
hofer 2016; Karle / Goldhammer 2017.
In order to expand the knowledge of the Holo-
cene landscape history along the German North Sea
coast, the WASA research project (The Wadden Sea as
an archive of landscape evolution, climate change and
settlement history) was established in 2015. During
a four-year research period the intertidal and shal-
low subtidal zones of the barrier islands Spiekeroog
and Norderney were investigated to reconstruct the
dynamic state of palaeolandscapes in the Wadden Sea
region as a basis for predictive modelling of human
settlement patterns and their possible impact on the
environment since the last glacial period. This com-
plex set of relevant data is necessary for predictive
modelling, using natural proxies as well as archaeo-
logical features to determine the archaeological per-
spectives of unsurveyed areas.
Concerning the dry land area of East Frisia, one
of the problems with the Mesolithic sites there is that
we are either dealing with more or less destroyed sur-
face sites, or sites hidden by peat and marsh layers. For
this reason a survey strategy to identify well-preserved
sites more systematically is the topic of a project that
started in 2019. An important discovery in this context
is the fact that a good number of known surface sites
in East Frisia are situated on the edge of so-called pin-
go scars (Mahlstedt et al. 2018b), landscape features
that had been small lakes in the early Holocene. Today
most such lakes have become small kettle bogs. The
position of some sites on their ramparts affords a good
opportunity to detect find layers on the inner slope
that were partly covered and thus protected by peat.
In a first survey eleven sites were tested for preserva-
tion conditions by field survey and coring. Other sites
are situated on the edge of the sandy uplands, close
to an area with basal peat under marine sediments.
Both positions in the landscape therefore have the
potential for a preserved paleo-surface below the peat.
In some cases, stone tools, charcoal samples and even
hazelnut shells were found by sampling with hand cor-
ers that bring up a larger amount of sediment, which
is sieved and sampled directly in the field. Small test
trenches have been investigated recently (Mahlstedt
et al. 2021). For the next years a second survey area is
planned in the Elbe-Weser area to detect Mesolithic
sites with organic preservation.
Final remarks
Bringing together the reconstruction of the coastal
landscape development with dated finds of human
bones has given a first glimpse of possible insights
into the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods
191
that its former shape cannot be reconstructed. Thus,
a clear typological distinction is not possible. A re-
cent 14C-dating gave a result of c. 2,278-2,042 calBC
(Fig. 2; Table 1), which would be contemporary with
the transitional horizon between the Late Neolithic
Single Grave culture and the Early Bronze Age on
the North Sea coast. This goes well together with
the dates of antler axes with a rounded base from
the Scheid area in Belgium (Crombe et al. 2018),
and shows that this is no Mesolithic find at all. But
at least it is a witness of human inhabitation also at
times when most of the dry land in the area of the
recent Wadden Sea had likely vanished already.
Unfortunately, analogies in form of further ant-
ler axes are rare in East Frisia. There is only a single
undated find that was dug up by a dredge in the river
Ems in the western corner of the peninsula.
In the southern neighbourhood of East Frisia an
accumulation of antler axes is known from the area
of the Zwischenahner Meer, a freshwater lake. Here,
swimmers occasionally found antler axes (Zoller
1958). Most of these finds can be described as
T-shaped antler axes, but there is at least one axe
made of the basal section of a red deer antler, dating
to the time between 6,251 and 6,050 calBC. This axe
as well as one of the T-axes of the stray finds and a
new find from recent underwater excavations on the
site were directly dated (Mahlstedt et al. 2018a). The
T-shaped piece of the old finds dates to the middle of
the 5th millennium calBC, the new find is dated to the
first half of the 4th millenium calBC (Table 1). These
objects appear to have been in use for longer in this
area than in Scandinavia, as mentioned earlier (Dell-
brugge 2002, 44-45). In the Netherlands, Belgium,
and at Hude I, antler axes appear in Swifterbant and
contemporary contexts very regularly (Crombe et al.
1999, Deichmuller 1969; Werning 1983).
Ongoing research
The current state of research in the Wadden Sea
suggests a potential of finding Mesolithic sites.2 The
research project ‘Settlement and cultural history of
the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea Area’, however, dis-
covered only medieval to modern surface sites close
to the recent dyke; the oldest burials and settlement
remains are dated to the Roman Iron Age (Nieder-
hofer 2016).
2 Jons et al. 2012/2013; Goldhammer / Karle 2015; Nieder-
hofer 2016; Karle / Goldhammer 2017.
In order to expand the knowledge of the Holo-
cene landscape history along the German North Sea
coast, the WASA research project (The Wadden Sea as
an archive of landscape evolution, climate change and
settlement history) was established in 2015. During
a four-year research period the intertidal and shal-
low subtidal zones of the barrier islands Spiekeroog
and Norderney were investigated to reconstruct the
dynamic state of palaeolandscapes in the Wadden Sea
region as a basis for predictive modelling of human
settlement patterns and their possible impact on the
environment since the last glacial period. This com-
plex set of relevant data is necessary for predictive
modelling, using natural proxies as well as archaeo-
logical features to determine the archaeological per-
spectives of unsurveyed areas.
Concerning the dry land area of East Frisia, one
of the problems with the Mesolithic sites there is that
we are either dealing with more or less destroyed sur-
face sites, or sites hidden by peat and marsh layers. For
this reason a survey strategy to identify well-preserved
sites more systematically is the topic of a project that
started in 2019. An important discovery in this context
is the fact that a good number of known surface sites
in East Frisia are situated on the edge of so-called pin-
go scars (Mahlstedt et al. 2018b), landscape features
that had been small lakes in the early Holocene. Today
most such lakes have become small kettle bogs. The
position of some sites on their ramparts affords a good
opportunity to detect find layers on the inner slope
that were partly covered and thus protected by peat.
In a first survey eleven sites were tested for preserva-
tion conditions by field survey and coring. Other sites
are situated on the edge of the sandy uplands, close
to an area with basal peat under marine sediments.
Both positions in the landscape therefore have the
potential for a preserved paleo-surface below the peat.
In some cases, stone tools, charcoal samples and even
hazelnut shells were found by sampling with hand cor-
ers that bring up a larger amount of sediment, which
is sieved and sampled directly in the field. Small test
trenches have been investigated recently (Mahlstedt
et al. 2021). For the next years a second survey area is
planned in the Elbe-Weser area to detect Mesolithic
sites with organic preservation.
Final remarks
Bringing together the reconstruction of the coastal
landscape development with dated finds of human
bones has given a first glimpse of possible insights
into the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods