L YKKE JOHANSEN DICK STAPERT ABSTRACT: Four Handaxe-Like Tools

HANDA.�CESFROM DENMARK : NEANDERTAL TOOLS OR 'VIClOUS FLINTS '? LYKKE JOHANSEN InSlilll1 for Arkæologi og Elnalogi, København, DenIIlark DICK STAPERT Vakgroep Archeologie, Groningen, Nelherlands ABSTRACT: Four handaxe- like tools from Denm ark (Fænø, Villestrup, Karskov Klint, Skellerup) and their surface modific ations are described. In the authors' opinion, only one of these tools probably dates from the Middle Palaeolithic: the Fænø handaxe. The other implements are thought to be prefOlIDs of bifacial tools dating from the Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age. One blade was found in a sand quarry near Seest, Jutland. It must derive from graveIly water-laid deposits, presumably meltwater deposits, because it is slightly rounded. Therefore it toa most probably dates from the Middle Palaeolithic. Several other sites in Denmark have produced flint material ascribed to the Early or Middle Palaeolithic, e.g. Vejstrup Skov and Ejby Klint. We believe that these do not necessarily date from the Palaeolithic. At these and similar localities we may in fac t be dealing with atelier-sites dating from much later periods: Mesolithic, Neolithic, or Early Bronze Age. It is argued that for dating any 'prim itive-looking' flint artefac ts to the Palaeolithic, when found outside a stratigraphic context, fe atures independent of typology should be used. Surface modifications on the flints, if studied in relation to the geological context, may provide such independent arguments. KEYWORDS: Denmark, Early/Middle Palaeolithic, handaxes, Neolithic, preform s, atelier-sites, surface modi fic ations on flint. l. INTRODUCTION 1985) always vigorously opposed any claims of Early/ Middle Palaeolithic artefac ts in Denm ark when these In Denmark, as in other countries, there has always finds could alternatively, and more plausibly, be been a lively interest in possibIe traces of Early interpreted as preforms of bifac ial tools from the Palaeolithic man, am ong both professional and am a Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age. In the sixties, he teur archaeologists. Much has been wtitten about the fought a noisy battle with Eli Jepsen (whom we shall relative ly few ar tefacts in Denmark which have been meet again in sec tion 4). Jepsen had made a big case in thought to date from this remote period. the media for the presence of Neandertal people in Artefac ts from the Early or Middle Palaeolithic, Denmark, based on what Glob believed to be Neolithic especiaIly ifthey are stray finds, are difficult to identify preform s. Glob repeatedly accused Jepsen of seeing with confidence. The reason is that the evolution offlint archaeological 'flying saucers' (e.g. Glob, October technology through prehistory was a cumulative pro 27th, 1963). Later, Glob engaged in a similardiscussion cess: new tricks were added, but there were no extinc with professor Carl Johan Becker (Becker, 197 1; Glob, tions. Previously developed techniques continued to be 1972; see section 4). The title of Glob's 1972 paper, used. Therefore, it is dangerous to rely on typology Farligflint, has become a famous expression in Danish alone. Direct hard percussion always rem ained in use, archaeology (here translated as 'vicious flint'). for example in the preparatory stages of the production However, Glob was not of the opinion that Middle of such advanced tools as axes or daggers. Hard-per Palaeolithic people could not have live d in Denmark, cussion flakes, Levallois-like flakes, and handaxe-like and he accepted a Middle Palaeolithic dating for the form s are all known to occur at sites dating from long sites at Hollerup and Seest (Glob, October 27th, 1963). after the end of the Palaeolithic, especiaIly from the Seest is one of the sites investigated by Erik Westerby Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. In the Netherlands (see section 8). Westerby visited Eli Jepsen (October and elsewhere, rough-outs of Neolithic axes have re 26th, 1963), to have a look at Jepsen's collection of peatedly been interpreted as handaxes (Stapert, 1981). 'Acheulian' handaxes from various sites in Denmark, In Denmark, preform s of bifac ial tools such as but was too sc eptical to be converted (manuscript by daggers, spearheads and sickles may resemble Palaeo Westerby, kept in the National Museum, Copenhagen). lithic handaxes. Professor Peter Vilhelm Glob (1911- Artefac ts dating from the Mesolithic toa may pre- 2 L. JOHANSEN & D. STAPERT o 2cm Fig. l. 'Claudi-kiler' from Gammelholm, Samsø. Drawing Lykke Johansen. o 2cm Fig.2. 'Chopper' from Gammelholm, Samsø. Drawing Lykke Johansen. sent an Earl y Palaeolithic habitus. Therkel Mathiassen crudely' pointe d end ('Claudi-kiler', named after the (1935) published material from a ser ies of sites in the finder of the first specimens, Mr Claudi-Hansen). Some Stavns Fj ord on the island of Samsø. A substantial of these tools looked very much Iike 'handaxes' to number of 'primitive-Iooking' tools were collected Mathiassen, which made him wonder about theirdating. here, showing a broad unworked basal part opposite a Moreover, some cores from these sites, made on round- Handaxes from Del/mark 3 ed flint pebbles, did resemble 'choppers'. Figures l and ly belonged to the Kongemose Culture. Therefore he 2 show examples of these implements, from the Gam argued that a Pleistocene dating for these tools would be melholm site in Stavnsfjord on Samsø. In this ar ea there improbable. are many shell-middens, mostly dating from the Ertebølle Given these and similar problem s, artefac ts con Culture. At these midden-sites, the handaxe-like tools sidered to originate from the Early or Middle Palaeoli did not occur; they were mostly found at some distance thic should preferably be dated by stratigraphical means. seawards of these sites, often under water. Though Typology can be misleading. Unfortunately,none of these coarse pointed tools did strike Mathiassen as the Danish flint artefac ts supposedly dating from these 'Palaeolithic', he admitted that they could not be dated periods was found in a stratigraphical context. So,how with certainty. can wefe el reasonably confident that any ofthe published Jørgen Troels-Smith (who, as a student, joined 'Early/Middle Palaeolithic ' material from Denmark Mathiassen's trip to Samsø) analysed some of the really belongs to that era, and not to much later prehistoric Samsø material. He believed that these tools belonged periods? In this pap er, we shall approach this problem to the Ertebølle Culture, and were used to cut molluscs, by studying the surface modifications that can be espec iaIly oysters, from the sea bottom . Ulrik Møhl obsenied on the artefac ts under discussion. Hansen found a Claudi-kiler (the one illustrated in fig. We were prompted to write this paper when the l) and a flake axe under water, in front of the handaxe-like tool from Skellerup (described under 7) Gammelholm site, near an oyster bank (Troels-Smith, was presented to the first author in 1994. 1995). Inspired by the work of Mathiassen, Ole Højrup (1947) described nine tools of the 'Samsø type',which 2. GEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND he collected from the beach, or under water, near Mesolithic sites in the Roskilde fj ord area, which most- Except for the southwestem part of Jutland, the whole Fig. 3. Map of Denmark, showing the sites discussed in this paper. A. Extent of the ice-sheet during the Lower PIen i glacial of the Weichselian; B. Extent of the ice-sheet during the Upper Pleniglacial of the Weichselian (after Houmark Nielsen, 1989). Asterisks: handaxe sites; triangles: other sites. Sites: l. Villestrup; 2. Fænø; 3. Karskov Klint; 4. Skellerup; 5. Seest; 6. Hollerup; 7. Vejstrup Skov; 8. Ejby Klint. Drawing Lykke Johansen. 4 L. JOHANSEN & D. STAPE RT ofDenmark was covered by the Weichselian ice-sheet. fig. 2). Chances for Palaeolithic habitation of eastem Two major glaciations and many smaller ones are Denmark must have been better in what is known in the known from the last glacial, with the result that the Netherlands as theEarly Weichselian. During this period, 'young moraine landscape' has a complicated geologi which was a complex of important interstadials (Amers caI history (for overviews of the Late Pleistocene of foort, Brørup, Odderade) and not very cold stadials, at Denmark, see: Houmark-Nielsen, 1989; Petersen, 1985). least parts of eastem Denmark must have been dry land The most important glaciation to ok place around (Houmark-Nielsen, 1989: fig. 5). 20,000 BP, during the period known in the Netherlands Summarizing: during the Eemjan, settlement was as the U pper Pleniglacial. (In Denmark, this is part of possibIe in Jutland; eastem Denmark was then covered the 'Late Weichselian' - which also includes the Late by sea. During the Early Weichselian, Jutland and at Glacial - (Houmark-Nielsen, 1989: p. 49), or of the least parts of eas tem Denmark were inhabitable. 'Late Middle Weichselian' (Petersen, 1985); the two Theoretically, Denmark could have been inhabited terms are somewhat confusing). In this period, the also during the final stages of the Middle Palaeolithic Weichselian ice-sheet reached its maximum extent (B during the Hengelo Interstadial, one of the interstadials in fig. 3). of the Middle Pleniglacial, c. 50-40,000 BP. From this Much earlier, during a period we take to correspond period, several leaf-point industries are known in to the Dutch Lower Pleniglacial, eas tem Denmark was northem and central Europe, e.g. in Poland, Germany covered by a Baltic ice-sheet, coming from the east, and the Netherlands (e.g. AlIsworth-Jones, 1986; Hulle, whichjust reached the east coast of Jutland (A in fig. 3). 1977). Between these two major glaciations, there was a Any Middle Palaeolithic tool in eastem Denmark complex of interstadials and moderately cold stadials dating from, for example, the Earl y Weichselian would (called the Middle Pleniglacial in the Netherlands, c.

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