The gradual transition to farming in the Lower Rhine Basin

Abstract

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research finances a research programme directed towards a new synthesis of the transition to farming in the Netherlands, viewed in its wider geographical context, profiting from the new wealth of data made available by modern large-scale field research. The programme encompasses various projects: a critical approach to the sitebound evidence by Luc Amkreutz, a regional approach by Bart Vanmontfort (Leuven), the first physical anthropological and isotopic study of the area by Liesbeth Smits, the acquisition and distribution of raw materials and prestigious items by Leo Verhart, and a re-evaluation of the various sources of palaeobotanical evidence from the delta district by Welmoed Out. This chapter serves as a short interim report, anticipating the synthetic volume planned for the year 2008. Comments are made especially on the seemingly parallel developments at the other end of the North German Plain in the Baltic coastal area.

Growing habits? Delayed introduction of crop cultivation at marginal Neolithic wetland sites

“…at the earliest in other regions as well, although precise data on the moment of introduction are less well known. Both the chronology and archaeological remains indicate that the Michelsberg Culture played an important role in the introduction of crop plants in the southern region (Out 2008;Raemaekers 1999), and archaeological finds suggest the same for the coastal region (Louwe Kooijmans 2007). For the northern region especially, the period and the instigators of the introduction of crop plants remain poorly known.…”

“…This site function is compatible with local crop cultivation. In the coastal region at least some sites also functioned as year-round occupied settlements (Louwe Kooijmans 2007). The Neolithic sites in the southern region probably functioned as extraction camps occupied repeatedly during various seasons, but the precise site function remains unclear (Louwe Kooijmans 2007), as do the resulting possibilities for crop cultivation.…”

Landscape potential for the adoption of crop cultivation: Role of local soil properties and groundwater table rise during 6000–5400 BP in Flevoland (central Netherlands)

“…Crop cultivation was eventually adopted in the Dutch wetlands~5400e4900 BP (e.g. Casparie et al, 1977;Bakels, 1981;Van Zeist and Palfenier-Vegter, 1981;Bakels, 1986;Louwe Kooijmans, 1993;Gehasse, 1995;Raemaekers et al, 1997;Brinkkemper et al, 1999;Raemaekers, 2003;Louwe Kooijmans, 2007;Cappers and Raemaekers, 2008;Out, 2008a,b;Amkreutz, 2013).…”

“…For example, in the loess region of NW Europe a rapid transition to crop cultivation occurred 6500e6300 BP (Louwe Kooijmans, 2007), while within wetland areas the continuation of a broad-spectrum economy appeared to have been a better alternative (Louwe Kooijmans, 1993Kooijmans, , 2007Amkreutz, 2013). Crop cultivation was eventually adopted in the Dutch wetlands~5400e4900 BP (e.g.…”

Forager–farmer connections in an ‘unoccupied’ land: First contact on the western edge of LBK territory

“…The strict synchronism and contact between the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers within this frontier zone and thus the existence of a long availability phase (sensu Zvelebil, 1996;Zvelebil and Rowley-Conwy, 1986) is often assumed (Kind, 1997, pp. 129-133;Louwe Kooijmans, 2007;Van Gijn and Louwe Kooijmans, 2005;Verhart, 2000). It remains, however, difficult to demonstrate in the archaeological record.…”