Grenzen im Wald

This study analyses the cultural conditions amongst late communities of hunter-gatherers in Central Europe. Considering the working technique of flint artefacts, a distribution area of dorso-ventrally base-retouched arrowheads emerged in the late Pre-Boreal [from ca. 8,900 B.C.] including northern France, Benelux and both banks of the River Rhine up to Switzerland and clearly distinct from neighbouring regions. This major zone remained stable in subsequent millennia – during the Boreal and Early Atlantic periods. In the Late Mesolithic, local subtypes emerged, and three types of arrowheads showed dorso-ventral preparation [“Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Culture B”, Danubian and Bavans points]. Taken together, these do not only confirm the stability of the distribution pattern, but their occurrence coincides with Mesolithic pottery of types Limburg and La Hoguette. This pottery, until now considered a derivate of the Western Mediterranean Cardial Culture, is now connected with the western French Atlantic coast as regards its origin. During the Linear Pottery Culture the distribution remained stable, and notions of a cooperation between Mesolithic and Neolithic populations are discussed.