In the western Netherlands Neolithic axes are hardly ever found in a complete state. Flint is scarce in this area and when these axes were exhausted, or when they broke during use, they were often... Show moreIn the western Netherlands Neolithic axes are hardly ever found in a complete state. Flint is scarce in this area and when these axes were exhausted, or when they broke during use, they were often re-used as flake cores. Vlaardingen Culture (3400–2500 BC) sites often yield large quantities of flakes and retouched tools made on polished axe fragments. Using an experimental approach, we tried to better understand the importance of recycling of these objects. For the experiments we reconstructed four so-called Buren axes. The experiments provided insights into the usefulness of broken axes as flake cores. It was also demonstrated that flakes struck from axes generally do not have a remnant of a polished surface, indicating that the importance of broken axes as flake cores has so far been underestimated. Furthermore, it was concluded that micro-debitage can successfully be studied to identify areas where broken axes were flaked. Show less
On the 22nd of October 2022 we hosted a hide-working workshop for the volunteers of Masamuda. The workshop was aimed to gain insight into hide-working traces on Vlaardingen Culture (VLC) scrapers.... Show moreOn the 22nd of October 2022 we hosted a hide-working workshop for the volunteers of Masamuda. The workshop was aimed to gain insight into hide-working traces on Vlaardingen Culture (VLC) scrapers. On the VLC site of Hekelingen III several scrapers were found with hide working traces which potentially could be linked to the scraping of fatty hides with the use of additives (Van Gijn 1990). To test this hypothesis, we scraped two sealskins with flint scrapers using additives. One hide was scraped with sand while the other was scraped with dried clay. The sealskins were donated to the project by Zeehondencentrum Pieterburen, a seal rescue center. These skins belonged to weaners, common seals (Phoca vitulina), who died of pneumonia, the skins were removed during the autopsy. We chose to use sealskins because these are notoriously fat and because seal bones were found both in Hekelingen III and in Vlaardingen (Brinkkemper et al. 2010). Show less
