DOI Kapitel:
Changing Worlds – The Spread of the Neolithic Way of Life in the North
DOI Kapitel:Amkreutz, Luc: A view from Doggerland – interpreting the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the wetlands of the Rhine-Meuse delta (5,500 – 2,500 calBC)
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0318
Luc Amkreutz
317
trouble is that they may be interpreted differently as
well: (producing) bone tools may have been something
to which little meaning was attached. Offering domes-
ticated cattle horns might be related to issues of avail-
ability, and a change in pottery production to suit new
food types may be equally pragmatic. While I would
advocate further case-studies in this direction, I would
also argue that more or additional insight into the devel-
opments taking place in the whole wetland region and
the characteristics of the process of neolithisation may
come from a better understanding of that region and
the mutual interaction between it and its inhabitants.
Crucial here is to acquire a more fundamental notion
of how communities over time interacted with their
environment. Some inspiration for this may be drawn
from a case study of Mesolithic Doggerland.
Surviving Doggerland
The area in front of the Dutch coast and extending to
Denmark, northwestern Germany and Great Britain
is known as Doggerland (Coles 1998; Amkreutz /
Van der VAart-Verschoof 2021). At the end of the
last Ice Age this area witnessed sea levels that were
about 70 m lower. This vast region in the southern
North Sea area was a rich and diverse landscape,
ideal for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (Gaffney et al.
2009). Over time this landscape drowned, which was
usually gradual, on average about 2 m per century,
but at times may have been dramatic and eventful,
such as during the draining of Lake Agassiz and the
Storrega slide (Hijma / Cohen 2010; 2011; Peeters /
Momber 2014). In any case it was something that was
witnessed over the generations.
Gradually our knowledge of this area is increas-
ing through both on- and off-shore investigations
(Peeters et al. 2019), including near-shore excava-
tions of Mesolithic sites as at Bouldnor cliff or at the
Rotterdam Yangtze harbour (Moree / Sier 2015). The
major source of information though are the numerous
finds that surface mainly due to beach nourishment
and, at least for the Dutch situation, the large infra-
structural projects of the Maasvlakte 2 extension of
Rotterdam harbour and the Zandmotor suppletion
area near The Hague (Peeters et al. 2019; Peeters /
Amkreutz 2020). The number of Palaeolithic and Me-
solithic finds from this area reaches many hundreds
Fig. 4 Bone and antler arrowheads from the North Sea area in front of the Dutch coast and Maasvlakte 1 (photo: Rijksmuseum van
Oudheden).
317
trouble is that they may be interpreted differently as
well: (producing) bone tools may have been something
to which little meaning was attached. Offering domes-
ticated cattle horns might be related to issues of avail-
ability, and a change in pottery production to suit new
food types may be equally pragmatic. While I would
advocate further case-studies in this direction, I would
also argue that more or additional insight into the devel-
opments taking place in the whole wetland region and
the characteristics of the process of neolithisation may
come from a better understanding of that region and
the mutual interaction between it and its inhabitants.
Crucial here is to acquire a more fundamental notion
of how communities over time interacted with their
environment. Some inspiration for this may be drawn
from a case study of Mesolithic Doggerland.
Surviving Doggerland
The area in front of the Dutch coast and extending to
Denmark, northwestern Germany and Great Britain
is known as Doggerland (Coles 1998; Amkreutz /
Van der VAart-Verschoof 2021). At the end of the
last Ice Age this area witnessed sea levels that were
about 70 m lower. This vast region in the southern
North Sea area was a rich and diverse landscape,
ideal for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (Gaffney et al.
2009). Over time this landscape drowned, which was
usually gradual, on average about 2 m per century,
but at times may have been dramatic and eventful,
such as during the draining of Lake Agassiz and the
Storrega slide (Hijma / Cohen 2010; 2011; Peeters /
Momber 2014). In any case it was something that was
witnessed over the generations.
Gradually our knowledge of this area is increas-
ing through both on- and off-shore investigations
(Peeters et al. 2019), including near-shore excava-
tions of Mesolithic sites as at Bouldnor cliff or at the
Rotterdam Yangtze harbour (Moree / Sier 2015). The
major source of information though are the numerous
finds that surface mainly due to beach nourishment
and, at least for the Dutch situation, the large infra-
structural projects of the Maasvlakte 2 extension of
Rotterdam harbour and the Zandmotor suppletion
area near The Hague (Peeters et al. 2019; Peeters /
Amkreutz 2020). The number of Palaeolithic and Me-
solithic finds from this area reaches many hundreds
Fig. 4 Bone and antler arrowheads from the North Sea area in front of the Dutch coast and Maasvlakte 1 (photo: Rijksmuseum van
Oudheden).