Predictive Modelling of Younger Dryas Archaeological Remains in Southern Flevoland (Central Netherlands)

Abstract

In this research locations are selected in Southern Flevoland (Central Netherlands) which are most likely to contain archaeological remains dating to the Younger Dryas (YD) (12,900-11,700 cal BP). To map and determine these locations two steps are performed: 1) The Pleistocene surface of Southern Flevoland is classified into landforms using a GIS application based on Topographic Position Index. 2) Data on the geomorphological setting and the distance to the nearest freshwater source of well-dated YD archaeological sites in the Northwest European Plain are extrapolated to the study area. The inductive predictive model indicates that elevated areas in close proximity to a freshwater source have the highest probability to contain YD archaeological remains. For potential Federmesser remains a maximum distance of 1500 m from the Eem fluvial system is estimated and for potential Ahrensburgian remains a maximum distance of 2500 metres. The areas with potential YD archaeological remains constitute less than 10% of the total study area. The detailed and well-preserved Pleistocene surface in the study area, combined with potentially wellpreserved YD remains due to the Holocene sediment cover, is of major importance for future studies on landscape exploitation by prehistoric hunter -fisher -gatherers. Reconstructing landscape exploitation opens up new avenues to study subsistence economy, settlement patterns and spatial organisation of past societies.

Late Glacial and Holocene aeolian deposition and soil formation in relation to the Late Palaeolithic Ahrensburg occupation, site Geldrop-A2, the Netherlands

“…Baales, 1996); another view moderated to shorter distance migration between the SE Netherlands in summer and the Ardennes in winter (Arts & Deeben, 1981). The Federmesser and Ahrensburg habitation occurred predominantly on well-drained coversand ridges near lakes, fens and oxbow lakes (Deeben & Arts, 2005; Deeben & Rensink, 2005; De Bie & Van Gils, 2006; Crombé et al, 2011, 2013; Van den Biggelaar & Kluiving, 2015; Van den Biggelaar et al, 2016 for an overview of Younger Dryas archaeological sites and dates in NW Europe).…”

Location Modeling of Final Palaeolithic Sites in Northern Germany

“…"Inductive" in this context refers to the use of a model that is based on the relationship between known archaeological sites and other attributes, as determined by machine learning methods, to predict locations of equal suitability. However, this widespread approach (as used in [3][4][5][6]) only describes first-order effects and is based on the premise that the sites are representative of the actual distribution. This is especially problematic for locations with sparse findings [7] (p. 17).…”