The human occupation of the Benelux during the Younger Dryas

Abstract

In the Benelux, the Federmesser population of the Allerød period seems to have disappeared at the onset of the Younger Dryas, which was a period of very cold conditions. The Ahrensburgian, a new group of people, occupied and expanded in the lowland and the higher country probably on a seasonal basis, during winter in the lowlands, and during the summer in the southern highland. In the Benelux, it can be defined typologically as an industry with numerous Zonhoven points, a variable number of Ahrensburgian points, numerous end scrapers and burins and no microburin technique. The origin of the Ahrensburgian remains fully unclear. We suggest that the Benelux Ahrensburgian is older than the north European one. At the end of the Younger Dryas and early Preboreal the whole Benelux, northern France, the dry southern North Sea and Southern England was used by Ahrensburgian groups. The late Ahrensburgian groups gave birth to the early Mesolithic and a continuous occupation of the Benelux.