THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE PLEISTOCENE–HOLOCENE TRANSITION IN THE NORTHERN RHINELAND, GERMANY

Abstract

Abstract Northern Rhineland archaeological sites provide information on patterns of subsistence and settlement during the late-Pleistocene Magdalenian and Final Palaeolithic and the early-Holocene Mesolithic periods and allow a good resolution of their relative and absolute chronology. The Magdalenian is represented by two major sites in the Central Rhineland (Gonnersdorf and Andernach-Martinsberg). Exogenous lithic raw materials show intensive contact to the northwestern Meuse–Rhine drainage area. This phase of settlement existed in the context of a ‘loess-steppe’ or ‘mammoth-steppe’ and absolute dates show that this was before the late glacial interstadial climatic amelioration. Subsistence was based on the hunting of large herd animals. The Magdalenian is succeeded by lithic assemblages of the Federmessergruppen characterised by short scrapers and backed points. Raw materials suggest that the Central Rhineland population had a radius of mobility approaching that found in the Magdalenian. Sites are particularly well preserved in the Neuwied Basin, due to burial by pumice deposits of the Laacher See eruption, and show that the Allerod population inhabited a mosaic landscape of open woodland and hunted a range of ‘temperate’ species. Evidence for differing site structuration, the exploitation of a diverse fauna and seasonality suggest that Federmessergruppen settlement patterns were possibly as complex as those proposed for the Magdalenian. During the Dryas III stadial the northern Rhineland was occupied or visited by Ahrensburgian tanged-point groups. It has been suggested that exploitation of the northern fringe of the Upland Zone formed an integral part of the subsistence strategy of the Ahrensburgian population involving the spring hunting of reindeer migrating to the uplands. Whereas the Holocene Mesolithic in the northern part of the region probably developed out of the Ahrensburgian tradition, it seems that the Mesolithic to the South developed from Federmessergruppen industries present throughout Dryas III. A small number of Rhineland sites provides evidence for Mesolithic subsistence activities or site organisation.