In: A. Garcia-Moreno/J. M. Hudson/G. M. Smith/ L. Kindler/E. Turner/A. Villaluenga/S. Gaudzinski-Windheuser (eds.), Human Behavioural Adaptations to Interglacial Lakeshore Environments. RGZM-Tagungen , 2020
Bedburg-Königshoven is the oldest Mesolithic site in the southernmost part of the Northern Europe... more Bedburg-Königshoven is the oldest Mesolithic site in the southernmost part of the Northern European Low-lands. Excavations at the site have exposed a rich spectrum of organic remains. The nature of the site as a secondary butchering camp with possible additional functions is well published, but evidence for other activities and site functions have been, thus far, in the shadow of the prominent find categories of faunal and lithic remains. Two perforated red deer (Cervus elaphus) crania with attached antler were recovered from this site and, due to a systematic review of the find category, are identified as so-called antler headdresses-an extremely rare type of object at Mesolithic sites. Presented in this paper is the detailed study of this find group that leads to the discussion of whether the adjacent dry-land area was the location of manufacture for at least two half-finished examples of these rare objects. The combination of this study with existing analysis of environmental and archaeological data reinforces the interpretation of Bedburg-Königshoven as a residential type site of the Early Mesolithic where a rapid adaptation to the changing environment of the Holocene is well documented.
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pinned by Markus Wild
Considering methods and findings by French researchers in view of technical descriptions and technological analysis, the present study’s results provide insights into manufacturing processes of antler tools, highlighting the importance of special procedures to obtain blanks, as well as seasonal behaviour of foraging groups, indicating an autumn occupation for the studied sites.
The book shows exemplarily how closely the cultural traditions of the Final Magdalenien and Hamburgian are connected technologically, and what insights into important aspects of human behaviour, including economical and social decisions, are possible by analysing organic material.
Papers by Markus Wild
A comparative analysis of the morphometric, zooarchaeological and technological features of individual specimens shows that certain characteristics often appear in combination. We propose to reserve the term deer antler ‘headdress’ to a subcat-
egory of specimens which we suggest might indeed have best functioned as headgear. Since several of the deer skull artefacts do not show all the human modifications included in our definition, we adopt a polythetic classification of the term ‘headdress’. Under this definition we identify a total of seven ‘headdresses’ among those frontlets which could be examined, and note further probable specimens among published material unseen by us.
In contrast to the conclusions of some other studies, new direct radiometric dates for the antler headdresses from Berlin-Biesdorf and Hohen Viecheln, together with recent chronological data for Star Carr and Bedburg-Königshoven suggest to us that ‘antler headdresses’ represent a phenomenon specific for the earliest Mesolithic of the North European Lowlands. Moreover, the presence of at least two or more of these artefacts at the better investigated sites suggests an important role for them in the rarely discernible social rituals of earliest Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, potentially as an aid to consolidating group/territorial identity.
Abstract: This contribution presents the status quo of research on the Final Palaeolithic occupation of Schleswig-Holstein. Over the last two decades new insights became possible based on isotopic, genetic, biostratigraphic, tephrochronologic, and archaeological analyses. Some of these projects and studies are still ongoing. The material on which these analyses were performed was mainly uncovered during the 20th century. We particularly focus on the chronology and the different challenges associated with the Late Glacial record. To do so, we review the radiocarbon dating record of Schleswig-Holstein and adjacent areas, especially Denmark, including 11 new radiocarbon dates from the sites of Stellmoor and Meiendorf. At present, in particular, the period of the Federmessergruppen (i. e., curve-backed point industries) appears poorly represented in this record. This shortage is due to preservational conditions on the one hand, as well as the often uncertain attribution of osseous single finds to archaeological entities on the other. Hence, a synoptic analysis of osseous remains of Late Glacial northern Germany and southern Scandinavia is desirable. The recently introduced partially laminated biostratigraphic lake sequence from Nahe LA 11 contains three cryptic tephra layers including the first geochemically identified evidence of the Laacher See Tephra in Schleswig-Holstein. The palynological analysis of this archive interlinks palaeoenvironmental with archaeological research questions. Amongst other implications, the data provided here suggest a continuity of human and reindeer presence in the area until the early Holocene. This result lines up with observations of shifting ecological zones throughout the Weichselian Late Glacial in Schleswig-Holstein.
This paper deals with the antler point from Lasbek dating to the mid-Allerod and the presence of reindeer in Schleswig-Holstein during this warm period.
variable, but all results from samples with >1 % collagen are plausible, and all extracts tested meet EA-IRMS acceptance criteria. FTIR was used throughout the process to monitor the removal of consolidants. Most of the dated samples were apparently consolidated with a compound based on cellulose nitrate. Tests suggest that this product would have been removed by the procedures followed to extract collagen, but its elemental and isotopic composition is such that we cannot exclude the possibility that enough consolidant remained in the dated collagen
extracts to produce significant radiocarbon age offsets, particularly in low-yield samples.
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Key words – Mesolithic; Final Palaeolithic; Early Neolithic; Westphalia
http://www.dguf.de/index.php?id=9
Since publication of results of the seminal excavations of Grahame Clark at the Star Carr Mesolithic site it has been usual to refer to a specific type of modified red deer skull as an ‘antler frontlet’. These have been discussed as head gear perhaps used in the context of ritual activities. Further specimens broadly similar to those described by Clark were subsequently recovered from possibly contemporary localities in mainland north-central Europe and have been interpreted in the same way. Nevertheless, until the present day the focus of attention on this class of artefacts has been of an interpretative or even speculative nature and there has been no synthetic study of them in their entirety. This paper describes a research project designed to correct this state of affairs.
2014 at the invitation of the district of Landshut. The meeting was attended by more than 60 scientists, students and amateur archaeologists from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark. A total of 20 papers were presented. In addition to the reports from the individual work areas of the participants, the Bavarian Mesolithic and a workshop on settlement dynamics in the Mesolithic were in the focus of the meeting.