Kemmelberg

The first modest prospecting at the Kemmelberg site dates from the end of the nineteenth century. This continued until the First World War interrupted (1914-1918), leading to the identification of a Neolithic settlement.

Baron Maurice de Maere d'Aertrycke (1864-1941) was one of the first to prospect on the Kemmelberg.

Fig 11: Baron Maurice de Maere d'Aertrycke.

The war's general and thorough soil destruction in 1918 thwarted intentions to carry out more extensive archaeological digging. It was not until the 1960s that small-scale excavations restored the connection and a previously-unknown aspect of the site - the Iron Age - surprisingly came to light.

Fig 12: Small-scale test excavations, 1967 campaign.

Large-scale excavations which were focused on the Iron Age took place between 1968 and 1980. These were immediately able to change the picture of the plateau's Neolithic occupation. They illustrated just how much the Iron Age earthworks and site disturbances in historical periods on the Kemmelberg had hindered the study of the Neolithic phase.

Nevertheless, many Neolithic traces and finds were found in situ at one location. In between, systematic prospecting continued from the early 1960s until 2012.

Through diversified fieldwork the characteristics of the Neolithic site were in this way gradually revealed.

Fig 13: Large-scale excavations 1972, Neolithic zone in situ.

The overall picture of the Neolithic site on the Kemmelberg is divided into two parts: the flanks and an elliptical plateau zone, which covers an area of three hectares.

A large part of this top zone is located above the 150m altitude line.

The well-connected find zones in this area have yielded numerous flint artefacts on the surface, but scarce fragments of earthenware due to the difficult preservation conditions.

Fig 14: Top zone (above the 150m altitude line), and the Neolithic zone in situ (bottom left). Additional image editing by W Willems.

During the excavations, numerous trenches were opened on the top of the Kemmelberg.

Apart from Iron Age material, these all contained a good deal of material from the Neolithic period.

All of this points to a fairly intense Neolithic occupation of the summit zone.

Within this, on the south-western edge of the plateau, a hitherto limited area of in situ Neolithic remains has been preserved, quite by chance at a shallow depth.

Outside of the forested peak, the density of finds from prospecting is also variable.

The site occupation and exploitation of a landscape with mixed deciduous forest on loamy and sandy loam soils by Middle Neolithic farmers seem to have descended to a variable bottom line on the hill slopes, with the lowest level at fifty metres and up to a local distance of over a thousand metres from the summit at 154m. Right away, the two well levels at 130-140m and 80m were within reach.

Fig 15: Kemmelberg well levels
Overlaid light blue lines = highest well level
Overlaid dark blue lines = lowest well level.

The picture on the Kemmelberg of the Neolithic presence of humans in the Late Neolithic and Final Neolithic periods (3500-2000 BC) is distorted. Definitely recognisable artefacts from these periods are rare and are limited to a few arrowheads.

Possibly-present earthenware and flint-working elements remain largely unrecognisable in the mass of Middle Neolithic material.

In the bed of the Heidebeek at Haringe - twenty kilometres from the Kemmelberg itself and on the border between Belgium and France - Remi Delerue found a rim sherd of a beaker belonging to a Late Neolithic Bell Beaker culture or the early Bronze Age.

Continued in Part 3

 

REFERENCES:
Baudewijn B - Studie van het lithisch materiaal van de neolithische site op de Kemmelberg (Ongepubliceerde licentiaatsverhandeling KU Leuven (unpublished), 1982, in Dutch)

Beau A et al - Multi-scale ancient DNA analyses confirm the western origin of Michelsberg Farmers and document probable practices of human sacrifice (PLOS One, 5 July, 2017)

Bostyn F, Monchablon C, Praud I, & Vanmontfort B - Le Néolithique moyen II dans le sud-ouest du Bassin de l'Escaut: nouveaux éléments dans le groupe de Spiere (Revue archéologique de Picardie, Le Néolithique du Nord de la France dans son contexte européen, n° spécial 28, 55-76, 2011, in French)

Chure G et al - The Anthropocene by the numbers: a quantitative snapshot of humanity's influence on the Planet (2021)

Collin J-P, Collet H, Denis S, & Putman J L - Notes sur deux grandes lames en silex trouvées au Kemmelberg (Notae Praehistoricae, 39, 133-141, 2019, in French)

Meyer C, Knipper C, Nicklisch N, et al - Early Neolithic executions indicated by clustered cranial trauma in the mass grave of Halberstadt (Nat Commun 9, 2472, 2018 - see external links)

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

Seidel U & Jeunesse C - À propos d'un tesson du Néolithique récent de la vallée du Neckar. La technique du bouton au repoussé et la question de la diffusion du Michelsberg (Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, tome 97, 229-237, 2000, in French)

Van Doorselaer A - Kemmelberg (W-Vl): Neolithische bewoningssporen en IJzertijd-bergvesting (Archeologie 1972/2, 79-80, in Dutch)

Van Doorselaer A - Kemmelberg (W-Vl): Neolithisch (Archeologie 1977/2, 75, in Dutch)

Vanmontfort B - Les Flandres durant la fin du 4e et le début du 3e millénaire avant notre ère. Inhabitées ou invisibles pour l'archéologie? (Anthropologica et Praehistorica, 115, 2004, 9 -25, in French)

Vanmontfort B - Converging worlds. The Neolithisation of the Scheldt basin during the late fifth and early fourth millennium cal BC (Ongepubliceerd proefschrift ingediend tot het behalen van de graad Doctor in de Archeologie aan de KU Leuven, Unpublished, 2004)

Vanmontfort B - Can we attribute the Middle Neolithic in the Scheldt and Middle Meuse basins to the Michelsberg Culture? (In Duhamel, P (Ed), Impacts interculturels au Néolithique moyen. Du terroir au territoire: sociétés et espaces, ARTEHIS Éditions, 2006)

RELATED KEMMELBERG LINKS:
Earliest Humans
Neolithic Enclosures

EXTERNAL LINKS:
Nat Commun 9
Western origin of the Michelsberg farmers...
Neolithic migrants and hunter-gatherers
Potential interactions between Mesolithics and Neolithics
When the First Farmers Arrived in Europe, Inequality Evolved (Scientific American)
Collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe
Premières occupations du Néolithique ancien dans le Nord-Ouest de la France (in French)
Les Flandres durant la fin du 4" (PDF, in French)
Le Néolithique moyen II dans le sud-ouest du Bassin de l'Escaut (in French)
The Human Impacts Database
Humanity's Influence on the Planet
Stone Age-like house (re)construction burned...
L'élevage d'animaux domestiqués (in French)
Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes
UNESCO - Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes
How To Make A Prehistoric Flint Axe | Stone Age Technology (YouTube)

RELATED HISTORY FILES LINKS:
Early Cultures of Europe
Neolithic Farmer Cultures in Europe
Sesklo Culture
Bell Beaker Culture
Modern Belgium
Modern Netherlands

 

Text copyright © Archeo Kemmelberg. An original feature for the History Files: Kemmelberg.