Abstract:

Our understanding of prehistoric life is shaped to a large degree by the study of stone tools. Their exceptional preservation makes flint tools ideally suited to reconstruct past lifeways. Use-wear analysis provides insights into the role of the ‘missing majority’ of perishable organic materials such as hide, wood, and plant fibres in past technologies. Reconstructing lithic biographies, from raw material procurement to use and recycling, reveals the complex dynamics of prehistoric life.

This book explores the lifeways of Vlaardingen Culture communities (3400-2500 BCE) in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta through the lens of such object biographies. A detailed study of flint assemblages from four key sites reconstructs past exchange networks, technological choices, and everyday activities. Flint was imported across considerable distances, often as finished tools such as polished axes. Once acquired, exotic material was fully appropriated and integrated into the local technological system. Use-wear evidence further reveals the emergence of part-time craft specialisation during the Vlaardingen Culture period.

Finally, the experimental research and use-wear analyses offer new insights into life in the delta, providing the earliest evidence in the Netherlands for the use of horn in craft production. These findings illuminate how communities lived and interacted in the dynamic wetland environment of the delta.

Contents

Part I: An Introduction to Vlaardingen Flint Biographies

1 Living with flint in the Neolithic wetlands
1.1 The project: Putting Life into Late Neolithic houses
1.2 Research questions and case studies
1.3 Roadmap through the book
1.4 Data availability

2 The Vlaardingen Culture
2.1 Research history
2.2 Chronology of the Vlaardingen Culture
2.3 The Neighbours
2.4 Landscape and subsistence
2.5 Flint in the Vlaardingen Culture

3 Object biographies and communities
3.1 A biographical approach
3.2 Direct procurement or down-the-line exchange
3.3 Cultural appropriation of material culture
3.4 Taskscapes
3.5 Communities of practice
3.6 Craft specialisation

4 Sources, techniques and use-wear analysis
4.1 Sourcing flint and ED-XRF analysis
4.2 Technological analysis of lithics
4.3 Use-wear analysis
4.4 Experimental archaeology
4.5 Computer programs

Part II: Biographies of Vlaardingen Culture flint

5 Experiments
5.1 How to finish your Neolithic axe?
5.2 Making leather from seal skin
5.3 Scraping salmon skins
5.4 The unusual suspects: hide working with axes
5.5 Experiments with horn
5.6 Recycling Neolithic axes
5.7 Concluding remarks

6 The coastal dune site of Den Haag Steynhof
6.1 Excavation and landscape setting
6.2 Features, finds, and material selection
6.3 Flint preservation
6.4 Flint procurement
6.5 Flint technology
6.6 Results of the use-wear analysis
6.7 Discussion and conclusion

7 Pioneers and hide-workers on the coastal dunes
7.1 The site of Den Haag Wateringse Binnentuinen
7.2 An axe from the site of Den Haag Gavi Kavel
7.3 The site of Den Haag Noordweg 76

8 The site of Hekelingen III: Life on the levees
8.1 Excavation and landscape setting
8.2 Material selection
8.3 Flint procurement
8.4 Flint technology
8.5 Results of the use-wear analysis
8.6 Discussion and conclusion

9 The site of Vlaardingen Arij Koplaan
9.1 Excavation and landscape setting
9.2 Features at the site and material selection
9.3 Flint preservation
9.4 Flint procurement
9.5 Flint technology
9.6 Flint typology
9.7 Results of the use-wear analysis of flint from trench 11 and 16
9.8 Results of the use-wear analysis of trench 15
9.9 Results of the use-wear analysis of trench 17
9.10 Discussion

10 Zandwerven
10.1 Excavation and landscape setting
10.2 Settlement type
10.3 Features at the site and material selection
10.4 Sieved shell sample
10.5 Preservation
10.6 Procurement
10.7 Technology
10.8 Typology
10.9 Results of the use-wear analyses
10.10 Discussion and conclusion

Part III: Living with flint in the Rhine-Meuse delta

11 Networking and sourcing during the Vlaardingen Culture period
11.1 Diversity in sources
11.2 Down the line exchange or direct procurement
11.3 Collecting flint nodules or importing finished products?
11.4 Appropriation of exotic flint
11.5 Taskscapes
11.6 Looking ahead

12 The technological system
12.1 Lithic technologies
12.2 Domestic life in the wetlands
12.3 A complex network of specialised communities

13 Communities of practice during the Vlaardingen Culture period
13.1 The Vlaardingen Culture, life in the wetlands
13.2 Social boundaries and interactions with the Funnel Beaker Culture
13.3 Openness and interactions with the Corded Ware Culture
13.4 Pluriform Vlaardingen Culture sites

14 Synthesis
14.1 Lessons from the experiments
14.2 Sourcing flint
14.3 Living with flint in the Rhine-Meuse delta
14.4 A lithic perspective on the Vlaardingen Culture
14.5 Methodological reflections

Appendices
Bibliography
Acknowledgements