A few years ago, archaeologists discovered an encampment of Neanderthals from the last ice age near Assen. This may be called quite special, now that the camp is revealing more and more of its secrets, it becomes even more interesting. Why are there many more hand axes here than at most other known Neanderthal sites in the Netherlands? And where have the cuts gone – the by-products of manufacturing these tools? The "workshop" where the tools were manufactured was apparently located elsewhere. Perhaps the discovery is a slaughter site from more than 50,000 years ago?
In the middle of the Old Stone Age (Middle Paleolithic), from about 130,000 to 35,000 years ago, Central and Southern Europe were populated by Neanderthals. They were hunters and gatherers, who mostly roamed around but sometimes also camped somewhere for some time. For a long time it was thought that the existence of such camps in the Netherlands almost ended at the major rivers. Although a worked piece of flint was occasionally found in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, these were always separate finds or sites where only a few artefacts (archaeological finds) were found in close proximity. Exceptions were Mander in Overijssel and a site consisting of a number of fields in the Corversbos near Hilversum, where dozens of artifacts from the Middle Paleolithic have been collected over time.
New find
This changed when at the end of 2006 the project Middle Paleolithic Northern Netherlands was started by Marcel Niekus and Dick Stapert of the Groninger Institute for Archeology (GIA) and Jaap Beuker of the Drents Museum, in collaboration with students from Groningen and Leiden and many amateurs. -archaeologists from all over the Northern Netherlands.
It led to the discovery of a Neanderthal camp along the edge of a stream valley near Assen – the exact location is a well-kept secret – where nearly 50 Middle Paleolithic artifacts have since been found. This makes it, after Mander and the site in the Corversbos, the largest encampment above the major rivers, and also the most northern site in our country.
Temporary bivouac
And Assen is different. While the sites at Mander and Hilversum are seen as 'normal' camps where flint has been worked and where other activities have been carried out, the camp near Assen probably only functioned as a temporary bivouac. “A place where maybe animals were slaughtered, maybe wooden tools were also made,” says Niekus. “Probably both”
Fist axes
What makes the camp special is the high number of hand axes that have been found. Nine have been picked up so far. That is about 20% of all artifacts found – an unprecedented high percentage. In comparison:In more than 30 years only one hand ax was found at Mander out of about 65 artifacts, none in the Corversbos, while dozens of Neanderthal artifacts have also been found there. Based on the shapes of the bifaces - especially triangular and sub-triangular ones - it is assumed that the camp dates from an early phase of the Mousterien de tradition Acheuléenne (MTA ) - i.e. from more than 50,000 years ago.
Because a broken semi-finished product of (probably) a hand ax was also found near Assen, and smaller more or less failed copies, some of the hand axes found must have been manufactured on site, the researchers believe. “The somewhat failed hand axes may well have been made by a Neanderthal child,” Stapert says. After all, you can't just work stone – so that had to be learned through trial and error.
Luggage
However, most of the artifacts found seemed to come from elsewhere. Especially some hand axes and a blade made with the so-called Levallois technique, it is almost certain that they were brought to the encampment as luggage by the Neanderthals. “That was not unusual, we know that they often took tools with them on their treks,” says Niekus.
The reasoning is simple. Whoever makes a hand ax leaves behind waste - pieces of flint that have been knocked off the tool, only to end up with the axe. “When making a hand ax dozens of such turns are created,” says Niekus. However, very little of such waste material was found at the Assen encampment. Niekus:“We have been active at the site for several years, we have walked on the field for hundreds of hours and collected tens of thousands of flints. If those hand axes and Levallois blade had been made on site, we would certainly have come across scraps from those tools.” However, that was not the case.
Slaughter and woodworking
The idea now is that the Neanderthals arrived in North Drenthe with a pair of hand axes and the Levallois blade in their pocket, and that they used those tools and left them behind. “The best explanation is that we are dealing with a temporary encampment,” says Niekus. It could be a place where animals were slaughtered, a place where (wooden) tools were made, maybe both. Stapert:“We know from research at foreign sites that MTA hand axes sometimes functioned as a slaughter tool, but that the majority were used for woodworking. Small hand axes in particular do not seem particularly suitable for rough slaughter.”
In the Netherlands it is the first time that a Neanderthal camp has been found where so many hand axes and so little waste material have been found. It is more common elsewhere in Europe. For example, the situation at Assen is comparable to what is known about the Ochtmissen site in Germany. Niekus:“Neanderthals have also settled here with their hand axes as luggage. They have used them and done little flint working on site; edited a few cores, sometimes a hand ax sharpened but not much more than that. So they must have deliberately gone to those locations because they knew there was game to catch there.”
And further?
In the meantime, the research continues, and geologists and geo-archeology students from the Free University in Amsterdam have also joined the project, to find out whether there are more clues to be found in the subsurface of the area about the way of life of the Neanderthals. who roamed here tens of thousands of years ago.
The finds from this first Neanderthal encampment in Drenthe will be included in the permanent exhibition of the new Drents Museum in the course of 2011.
- Passion for Paleolithic – an interview with Jonny Offerman (Archeoforum)
- Two new Middle Paleoliths from Mander (Archeoforum article about Mander)
More Neanderthals:
- The Death of Neanderthals in Europe (Knowledge Link Article)
- Neanderthal genome unraveled (Knowledge link article)
- Neanderthals Were Not Stupid (Knowledge Link Article)