High-resolution Bayesian chronology of the earliest evidence of domesticated animals in the Dutch wetlands (Hardinxveld-Giessendam archaeological sites)

Merita Dreshaj; Michael Dee; Nathalie Brusgaard; Daan Raemaekers; Hans Peeters

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0280619

High-resolution Bayesian chronology of the earliest evidence of domesticated animals in the Dutch wetlands (Hardinxveld-Giessendam archaeological sites)

PLoS One. 2023 Jan 24;18(1):e0280619. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280619. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Merita Dreshaj^{1

2}, Michael Dee², Nathalie Brusgaard¹, Daan Raemaekers¹, Hans Peeters¹

Affiliations

¹ Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
² Centre for Isotope Research, Energy Academy, Groningen, Netherlands.

Abstract

The archaeological sites of Hardinxveld-Giessendam de Bruin and Polderweg, situated in the Rhine-Meuse delta, are the best-preserved Mesolithic sites in the Netherlands. Due to the early appearance of domesticated animals in their faunal assemblage, they are also integral to the research of the emergence of animal husbandry in the region. This study focuses on the precise chronology of the sites, using radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling of both newly acquired and legacy radiocarbon dates. To mitigate the risk of erroneous dates, we dated the bone collagen of 26 herbivorous and one aquatic mammals from clear archaeological contexts and discovered that the most recent occupational phases at both sites are several centuries younger than previously thought. This is consistent with material evidence of lifestyle changes in the final phase at Hardinxveld-Giessendam de Bruin, which is now, according to our chronology, contemporaneous with the similar patterns produced in the region.

Copyright: © 2023 Dreshaj et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Domestic*
Archaeology
Bayes Theorem
Mammals
Radiometric Dating
Wetlands*

Grants and funding

This study is part of the project ‘The Emergence of Domesticated Animals in the Netherlands’, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (grant number 406.18.HW.026.) The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.