Kemmelberg

Earliest Humans (Part 4: The Last Hunter-Gatherers)

by J L Putman & M Soenen

In the more varied, heavily overgrown-to-densely wooded landscape of the Mesolithic (10,000-4,400 BC), which followed the end of the most recent ice age - part of the Holocene which dates from 10,000 BC to today - hunting weapons had been adapted to the changed scenery.

Vegetation, game species, and fishing opportunities had all changed with the warming temperatures. Now established in hunter-gatherer communities, archery played an important role in this expanding food-gathering process.

In terms of lithic material this has left traces in the form of miniaturisation which focused on improving arrow armaments. Such finds come from a fairly well-defined zone at the top of the Kemmelberg.

Photo © H Maertens

Mistletoe leaf point between two other point types, in these prospecting finds from the Kemmelberg.

Reconstruction of a hafted and barbed arrow, plus two points

Photo © H Maertens

Reconstruction of a hafted and barbed arrow next to two unearthed points, from the Kemmelberg.

Typical of the Mesolithic period are small scrapers such as this thumbnail scraper, below.

Thumbnail scraper from the Kemmelberg.

With the arrival of agriculture and livestock farming in Heuvelland around 4,000 BC, the hunter-gatherer age gradually came to an end.

REFERENCES:
M Toussaint, K Di Modica, & S Pirson - Le pal éolithique moyen en Belgique Liège (ERAUL 128, Études et recherches archéologiques de l'université de Liège, 2011, in French)

M Ulrix-Closset, M Otte, & A Gob - Paléolithique et Mésolithique au Kemmelberg (Flandre Occidentale) (ERAUL 11, Études et recherches archéologiques de l'université de Liège, 1981, in French)

R Putman, M Soenen, & G Tieghem - De prehistorie (published in Kemmel-Cassel, De vroegste bewoningsgeschiedenis van de Vlaamse heuvels, Y Roumegoux & J Termote (Eds), Westvlaamse Archaeologica 9/2, 25-38, 1993, in Dutch)

M Otte - Pièces paléolithiques du Mont Kemmel (Flandre Occidentale) et extension de l'Aurignaciaan en Flandres (Bulletin de la STGPA, Société Tournaisienne de Géologie, Préhistoire et Archéologie, t 38, 1979, 200-203, in French)

J-L Piel-Desruisseaux - Encyclopédie pratique des Outils préhistoriques - 150 outils et gestes techniques (Edited, Dunod, Paris, 2011, in French)

J Beuker - Vuurstenen Werktuigen - Technologie op het scherp van de snede (2010, in Dutch)

K Ruebens - Regional behaviour among late Neanderthal groups in Western Europe: a comparative assessment of late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tool variability (J Hum Evol 65(4), 341-362, 2013)

J J Shea - Stone Tools in the Palaeolithic and Neolithic Near East-A Guide (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

RELATED KEMMELBERG LINKS:
Retrospective

EXTERNAL LINKS:
Regional behaviour among late Neanderthal groups in Western Europe
Stable isotopes reveal patterns of diet and mobility in the last Neandertals and first modern humans in Europe
I spent three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve my gut health
Hunter gatherers facilitated a cultural revolution through small social networks
Hunter-gatherer multilevel sociality accelerates cumulative cultural evolution
Evidence for close-range hunting by last interglacial Neanderthals
Vuursteenbewerking (PDF, in Dutch)
A Morphometric Comparison of Experimental 'Preferential' Levallois Flakes versus Debitage Flakes
The Revolutionary Genius of Neanderthals
Stone Age Tools
Phys.org