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Human presence in the central Netherlands during early MIS 6 (~170-190 Ka): evidence from early Middle Palaeolithic artefacts in ice-pushed Rhine-Meuse sediments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

R.T. van Balen  and
F.S. Busschers
R.T. van Balen*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Climate Change and Landscape Dynamics Section, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, NL-1081HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
F.S. Busschers
Affiliation:
TNO – Geological Survey of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 85467, NL-3508 AL, Utrecht, the Netherlands
*
Email: ronald.van.balen@falw.vu.nl.
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Abstract

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Part of the gravelly deposits of a combined Rhine-Meuse river of Middle Pleistocene age in the central Netherlands contains early Middle Palaeolithic artefacts. Although not in their original position, a significant part of these artefacts is hardly abraded, indicating limited fluvial transport. The artefacts have mainly been made from fluvial flint gravel boulders, originating from the Meuse catchment. Thus far, inferences for the age of the artefacts are based on the stratigraphic context and floral and faunal remains, which suggest a MIS 7 age. In this paper, OSL dating carried-out in the framework of a research aimed at the paleogeographical reconstruction of the Rhine-Meuse fluvial system in the central Netherlands and a review of published data are used to provide absolute age constraints for the artefact-bearing deposits. It is argued that the deposits were formed during the glacial phase directly preceding the Drenthe substage of the late Saalian (early MIS 6), and that at least a part of the artefacts has approximately the same age.

Keywords

Rhenenartefactslate SaalianMIS 6the Netherlands
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , July 2010 , pp. 77 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2010

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