Residence by Schipluiden
The 150 m × 50 m living space of Schipluiden in the Harnaschpoldern in the municipality of Midden-Delfland is located on a dune in the former coastal landscape of the Netherlands .
The Schipluiden, excavated in 2003, presents the last phase (3600-3300 BC) of the Mesolithic Swifterbant culture in the province of Zuid-Holland. The Swifterbant culture is also documented in Bergschenhoek , Brandwijk-Kerkhof , Hazendonk , Schokkerhaven and Swifterbant in the form of small living spaces on the dunes.
The four or five households that were permanent residences in Schipluiden used a broad spectrum of food, ranging from the exploitation of the surrounding wetlands to livestock farming, which is difficult to quantify, the cultivation of grain and the hunting of deer, birds (especially ducks) and wild boar, as well as fishing . The isotope analysis of human bones found freshwater fish to be the most essential part of the diet. The place was probably enclosed to prevent the pets from trampling on the cultivated plants. With regard to the procurement of flint and other materials not available locally, the residents maintained contacts with the south and east, rather than the north.
Schipluiden also offers insights into the burial of the deceased and the spread of human bone material. This also includes the killing and dumping of decapitated dogs and three cattle in a pit. The bones of sea eagles , which may have been hunted for their feathers, were ubiquitous. The impression arises of an economically and ritually partly Neolithic society that had adapted in a certain way 1500 years after the appearance of the first farmers in the region. It seems that the neolithization of the hunters and gatherers of the western Netherlands is characterized by the very slow adoption of selected practices of the neighboring agricultural society, which did not penetrate into the tidal area of the northern Netherlands because the conditions there were too extreme, which meant the survival of the Swifterbant people made possible.
literature
- LP Louwe Kooijmans: Schipluiden: A Neolithic Settlement on the Dutch North Sea Coast C. 3500 Cal BC (Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia) 2006
Web links