In this thesis the flint assemblage of the Vlaardingen site Wateringse Binnentuinen is analysed with a special focus on scrapers. Compared to other Vlaardingen sites, a striking amount of scrapers...Show moreIn this thesis the flint assemblage of the Vlaardingen site Wateringse Binnentuinen is analysed with a special focus on scrapers. Compared to other Vlaardingen sites, a striking amount of scrapers was found at WBT. To see if this could have a functional reason the scrapers were divided in multiple typological groups and their use-life was researched. During the technological and use-wear analysis it became clear that the Vlaardingen people at this site were very opportunistic in the production of flint artefacts. However even though the number of scrapers is high at this site, the use-wear analysis shows that almost all scrapers were used for scraping hide. But not all the hide traces were the same; besides the presence of dry and fresh hide four different groups of hide traces were also recognised. Since it was not clear what could have caused the development of these hide wear traces, experiments were designed and conducted to see if the edge angle and the surface where scraping was conducted could explain these differences. Unfortunately the wear traces on the experiments were not developed enough to provide an explanation. When combining the results of the use-life study with the permanent character of the settlement one can likely speak of a site with a very specialised tradeShow less
The Bandkeramik culture came to the Netherlands as a complete package. This new culture settled itself at the Graetheide plateau in the south of the Netherlands on the fertile loess grounds. Geleen...Show moreThe Bandkeramik culture came to the Netherlands as a complete package. This new culture settled itself at the Graetheide plateau in the south of the Netherlands on the fertile loess grounds. Geleen-Janskamperveld is one of these Bandkeramik settlements. All aspects of the Bandkeramik culture are very similar between the different settlements so models are very suitable to analyzee the Bandkeramik culture. One of these aspects which has different models, is the settlement structure. The Hofplatz model is used for centuries as the main model for the Bandkeramik culture. Within this model clusters of houses represent successive houses and thus continuity on a single location. There is still some disagreement whether one or several houses were in use at one time within such a cluster. Rück proposed a different model in which the settlement is structured along lines. He also proposed a different reconstruction of the houses and he assumes a longer use-life for the individual houses: up till a 100 years instead of the 25 years which is used most. Within this research a use-wear study of the flint artefacts found at Geleen-Janskamperveld is executed with the hope of finding some specialization between different houses. This information could help with finding which of these models is best suitable for this excavation. Some use-wear study was already done in the past. The results of the previous study are used for this new research. The predominant contact material found at Geleen-Janskamperveld is hide, followed by cereal harvesting tools. This is in line with other Bandkeramik sites in the Netherlands which were studied in the same way. Other contact materials like wood, reed, bark, meat, bone, clay, mineral materials and the mysterious contact materials which produces ‘polish 10’ and ‘polish 23’ were also recognised. Unfortunately no real specialization was found between the different houses of Geleen-Janskamperveld. The rest of the analysis therefore is based on the literature. Rück proposed new models for different aspects of the settlement. He argues that houses were built on poles instead of on the ground. His main argument, steep slopes on which the houses were built in Bandkeramik times, is not valid for the Dutch LBK. His argument about the duration of a house generation is more plausible. The old arguments for a house generation are a bit outdated. Houses probably would have last longer. A visual analysis is executed to find possible settlement structures at Geleen-Janskamperveld. This resulted in several maps which clearly show that the model of Rück is not plausible for this excavation. No real alignments are apparent. A model in which clusters of several houses success each other is more plausible. This is supported by other features such as ditches.Show less
