interaction during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition
in the Lower Rhine Area
In: H. Fokkens et al (2008). Between foraging and farming.
Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 40. pp 85-97
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8.1 INTRODUCTION
During the past few decades, the neolithisation process
in Europe has been recognised not to be a single and
large scale process, but rather a mosaic of multiple
regional processes. In the wetlands of the Lower Rhine
Area, recent data has yielded new insights in the nature
of the process.
It has become clear that the successors of the local
Late Mesolithic gradually adopted typically Neolithic
elements, and the entire process of extending the broad
spectrum economy, first with pottery, and only later
with domestic stock and cereals, spanned a period of at
least a millennium.
Still within the Lower Rhine Area (LRA), the loess
region presents a different case to the wetlands. Here,
after its first appearance the Neolithic displays
several hiatuses, one of which occurs at around the mid
5th millennium cal BC. This hiatus has been claimed to
be merely one in knowledge, rather than corresponding to
an actual lack of occupation, but whichever it was, the
processes at work during this phase seem to have been
crucial for the neolithisation of the region. Until more
evidence is uncovered, the gap can only be filled by
indirect arguments, such as the one to be developed in
this paper.
The indirect way taken here to approach the problem, and
to confirm continuity in human activity in the southern
LRA, is through the exploration of interregional
exchange. First, I will outline the geographical and
chronological context, followed by an introduction to
the evidence for exchange, before a more detailed
consideration of the changing patterns from before the
arrival of farmers, through their arrival and the
hiatus, to the time when neolithisation can be said to
have occurred. In this way, the particular local
character of the neolithisation process will, it is
hoped, be revealed.
8.6 CONCLUSION
In this paper, the possibilities of interregional
exchange have been explored in order to fill a gap in
our knowledge of the Neolithic of the southern LRA.
While acknowledging the problems related to
characterising exchange processes on the basis of
limited artefacts, some conclusions can be drawn based
on an evaluation of diachronic changes in the nature of
the exchanged items.
The data confirm the existence of interregional and
cross-cultural exchange networks during the entire
period under study. Contact between Swifterbant
communities and the early farming communities of the
south is confirmed, but in addition to this, older
‘Mesolithic’ exchange networks with this region seem to
have persisted during and after the arrival of the LBK.
Some raw materials, for instance, cannot have been
obtained by exchange with Neolithic communities of
neighbouring regions and do not seem to have been the
result of direct procurement either. This confirms the
continuation of human activity and raw material
exploitation in the southern loess regions of the LRA,
apparently independently of the Neolithic processes of
that time.
From the late 5th millennium onwards, however, the
southern exchange networks of the Swifterbant
communities do seem to be restricted to interaction with
the Chasséen/Michelsberg culture. This fits with a
previously developed model in which the latter culture
developed on top of a native, Mesolithic rooted
substrate.
In order to further develop this topic, and to verify
this hypothesis, future research should focus on the
discovery and investigation of sites that illustrate the
development of the local substrate. In particular sites
located in the riverine wetlands of the southern LRA,
such as the Scheldt valley, are expected to yield
valuable remains to feed the discussion.
Such data should also allow us to identify the extension
of the Swifterbant phenomenon, and to identify the
impact of northern developments on the neolithisation
process in the southern LRA. It would shed a light on
the nature of the interaction of the local substrate
with the earliest farming communities of the LBK and on
the role of the BQY in that process.
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