Swifterbant culture

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The Swifterbant culture (Dutch Swifterbantcultuur ) is a late Mesolithic or early Neolithic culture that occurred in the wetlands of the Netherlands including the regions between Antwerp , in Belgium and Lower Saxony between 5000 and 3400 BC. Existed and is part of the older Rhine-Maas-Scheldt Mesolithic .

Eponymous location

Swifterbant is a district of Dronten in the province of Flevoland . The sites were excavated by the University of Groningen .

Map of Swifterbant

Research history

The polder Oostelijk Flevoland , Province of Flevoland was finally diked in 1959. Numerous sherds and flint artifacts were found during the construction of trenches. Excavations between 1962 and 1979 uncovered a previously flooded early Neolithic landscape. The settlements that arose between 4,300 and 4,000 lay on the banks of rivers and on the accompanying dunes.

Settlements

The Swifterbant culture is occupied in several places (Bergschenhoek, Brandwijk-Kerkhof , Hazendonk, Kruibeke, Schokkerhaven, Swifterbant) as small living spaces on the dunes. The locations date between 5700 and 4100 BC. Chr.

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and were inhabited in three phases as small seasonal fishermen's camps in summer.

Burials

At least two small grave fields and In Hardinxveld -Giessendam the body of the oldest woman in the Netherlands called "Trijntje" was found.

Finds

The pointed-bottom ceramics of the Swifterbant culture show clear parallels to the Danish Ertebölle ceramics and the Njemen ceramics of the southeastern Baltic region and can be assigned to the Forest Neolithic . Artifacts of the material culture of the linear ceramic tape were adopted by the Swifterbant people quite early on.

Economy

The research of Cappers and Daan C. M Raemaekers suggests that grain cultivation did not begin until around 4300 BC. Began. The evidence of grain cultivation of the Swifterbant culture includes pollen diagrams with grain pollen and sickle sheen on flint blades. Macro leftovers are limited to emmer and naked barley. Opium poppies were found in Brandwijk-Kerkhof, but its use remained unclear. Evidence for cattle and pigs was recognized. Bones of deer, wild boars, beavers and otters were found.

Delay in agriculture

Linear ceramic settlements have been in the southeast of the Netherlands ( Limburg ) since 5300 BC. Built in BC. In the Swifterbant settlements, crops were first introduced in 4370 BC. Found. However, the exact date is currently unknown. Why the Swifterbant people did not adapt the achievements of linear ceramics and the following Neolithic cultures ( Rössen and Michelsberg ) is an open question. Possible reasons are:

  • 1.Environmental conditions (the western Netherlands became a tidal area due to the peak rise in sea level around this time),
  • 2. The multitude of food sources in the wetlands made agriculture unnecessary
  • 3. cultural and ideological resistance to change.
  • 4. Given the limited number of sites, a research gap can distort the picture.

Succession cultures

The successor to the Swifterbant culture is the Vlaardingen culture , which also survived in the far west of the Netherlands as a semimesolithic culture.

literature

  • RTJ Cappers, Daan CM Raemaekers: Cereal cultivation at Swifterbant? In: Current Anthropology 49 (3), 2008, pp. 385-402.
  • T. Holleman, WJ Hogestijn, Hans Peeters: De Swifterbantcultuur / druk 1: een nieuwe kijk op de aanloop naar voedselproductie. Uitgeverij Uniepers, Abcoude 2004, ISBN 90-6825-279-8 .
  • Welmoed A. Out: Growing habits? Delayed introduction of crop cultivation at marginal Neolithic wetland sites. In: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (Supplement 1), 2008, pp. 131-138.
  • Welmoed A. Out: Neolithisation at the site Brandwijk-Kerkhof, the Netherlands: natural vegetation, human impact and plant food subsistence. In: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (1): 2007, pp. 25-39.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DJ Huisman, AG Jongmans, Daan CM Raemaekers, Investigating Neolithic land use in Swifterbant (NL) using micromorphological techniques. Catena 87, 2009, 185
  2. ↑ "the bone spectrum indicates habitation in all seasons (Zeiler, 1997)." DJ Huisman, AG Jongmans, Daan CM Raemaekers, Investigating Neolithic land use in Swifterbant (NL) using micromorphological techniques. Catena 87, 2009, 187
  3. ↑ probably the oldest burial is meant. How old was she?