THE HAND-AXE FROM DROUWEN (PROVINCE OF DRENTE, THE NETHERLANDS) AND THE UPPER ACHEULIAN Dick Stapert CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION z. THE SITE, GEOLOGY 3 . THE HAND-AXE 4. THE EXCAVATION 5. COMPARISON WITH OTHER FINDS 6. SUlvI MARY 7. NOTES 8. REFERENCES D. STAPERT r. INTRODUCTION made. I should like to thank both of these gentle­ men very much for their cooperation. It is apt that a definite publication on the hand-axe I should also like to thank the foliowing persons from Drouwen should appear in this issue of who have contributed towards the realization of Palaeohistoria, dedicated to Prof. Dr. H. T. \X!ater­ this �rticle: H. R. Roelink and J. M. Smit (B.A.I.) boll<. In the first place Prof. \X!aterbolk gave his for making 'most of the drawings; F. \XI. E. Colly assistance during the investigation, for which I (B.A.I.) for the photos of the hand-axe; the muni­ should like to thank him here. Moreover this find, cipal authorities of Borger, for permission to carry which was discovered in r 978, could also be re­ out the excavation and for providing a ground-plan garded as an additional piece of evidence with showing the proposed extension of Drouwen; regard to a curious adventure which was largely Sheila M. van Gelder-Ottway for the translation shared by Professor \Xlaterbolkand myself (Stapert, into English ; and Engelien Rondaan-Veger for I 975 a). typing the manuscript. An interim publication on The hand-axe was found early in :March 1978 by this find appeared in 1978. Messrs. H. and P. Kroezenga (of Gasselte), both of whom are active amateur archaeologists. They Fig. 1. i\fapof Drouwen and surroundings. After the Hoog­ were kind enough to permit me to study the imple­ tekaart van Nederland, 1:1 1969), sheets 1 zGz and 1 zHz. o,ooo ( ment. In addition P. Kroezenga assisted at the ex­ The small rectangular area in Drouwen is shown in fig. z. cavation carried out at the spot where the find was Drawing by H. R. Roelink, B.A.l. Orouwener Zand 0 r28 T/Je ha11d-axeJr o111 Dro1111;e11 50 m secondary find- spot ol the hand-axe � part ol road cutting from which the hand-axe presumably came - excavations 8.A.1. 1978 I ;::::i ditches public planting h'>:·?l 2. THE SITE, GEOLOGY Fig. z. Map showing the·development scheme for Drouwen. The spot where the hand-axe was found is indicated, as well as The find was made in the village of Drouwen (mu­ that part of the cunette where the hand-axe must have come from, and the excavation trenches. Basecl on a map of the nicipality of Borger) at a site where a road was municipal authorities of Borger. Drawing by H. R. Roelink, under construction as part of a new-development B.A.I. scheme (see figures r, 2). The fi nd was made on a heap of loose soil which came from the cun�tte dug sheet r 2G-Gieten). As is evident from figure r, the. for the road. In view of the faet that the soil from sire does not lie close to a valley fringe (as is the the cunette was dumped sideways, the original case with other sites where hand-axes hav\ been find-spot can be ascertained to within a distance of fo und in the Northern Netherlands: see fig. 3 ), but rom (the cross-hatched area of figure 2). The coor­ is situated ca. 2 km to the west of the point where dinates of the site are as follow: 5 52,5 50/249,525 the Voorste Diep enters the Hunze valley (a melt­ (Topographical lvfap of the Netherlands, r :21,ooo, water valley dating from the Saalian). 0. STAPERT + find-spot reasonably well known O find-spot not we ll known 0 10 20km ten peat raised bog 1 ··.•.•.. >I clay I j [//J Fig. 3. The distribution of i'l'fiddle Paleolithic finds in the pro· Paleolithic finds known so fa r from the Northern vinces of Friesland and Drente (The find-spot of the point Netherlands (Stapert, l 976a, b ). Geologicall y it is from Deldenerbroek, province of Overijssel, cannot be shown not possible to give more accurate a date than the as its Jocation is unknown). 1·. Hand-axe from \Xlijnjeterp; 2. fo liowing: the hand-axe cannot be alder than the hand-axe from Anderen; 3. hancl-axe from Exloo; 4. hancl-axe from Drouwen; 5. point from Havelterberg; G. sicle-scraper end of the Saalian, nor younger than the Upper from Emmen. Drawing by H. R. Roelink, B.A.l. Pleniglacial of the \'(/eichselian. The Saalian has been the object of thorough study in the Netherlands, both in the field of ge­ At this spot boulder-clay (ground moraine from ology ( e.g. Ter Wee, l 962, l 966) and in that of the Saalian) is present fairl y close to the surfa ce, pollen analysis (Zagwijn, 1973 ; Zagwijn and Van and above it a layer of boul der-sand ( out-wash re­ Staalduinen, 1975). There are known to have been sidue from the boulder-clay). In digging the cun­ three stadials during the Saalian. It was only during ette the boulder-clay had been cut into, so that in the last of these (III) that the northern half of the addition to the topsoil, boulder-clay and boulder­ Netherlands was covered by land ice. In the Net­ sand ended up in the dump. The hand-axe must herlands five static glaciation phases can be dis­ have come from out of the boulder-sand, in view of tinguished within this land-ice cover. The penul­ the natural surface-modifications present (see timate phase (d) left behind a row of ice-pushed 130 under 3). This also applies to the other .i'viiddle ridges same of which are still visible in the land- scape in the southern part of the province of Fig. 4. Climatic curve for the Late Pleistocene in the I ether­ Drente (e.g. the Havelterberg). As for the last lands, based on Zagwijn and Van Staalcluinen (1975). Same phase, several ice-pushed moraines which it pro­ parts of the curve are only provisional: it is probable that in the fu ture several small fluctuations will be discovered notably duced are known from the extreme north-east of in the Saalian. Drawing by ]. M. Smit, B.A.J. the Netherlands (fig. 5 ). During the first part of the Saalian, sediments of the Formation of Eindhoven were deposited (lo­ though interstadial formations are also present (e.g. cally up to 30 m thick or more, as tbe result of gyttja and loam layers). Zagwijn (1973) described 2 glacial pushing). These deposits are a periglacial interstadials in the Saalian preceding the ice cover, fo rmation dating from befare the land-ice cover, namely the Hoogeveen interstadial and the Bantega and are mainly of aeolian or fluvio-periglacial interstadial (fig. 4). origin. Pollen analysis has confirrned that they de­ The subdivision of the Saalian in the Nether­ veloped largely under pleniglacial conditions, al- lands as described above does not correspond to D. STAPERT = 0 10 20 30 km I I (,1 * I I i I -./ '· I ) � . ./ ./ -:'_....-·-·\ Fig. Saalian glaciation in the Nether­ " ·-·1,,...., !,.., 5. i ·' ./ lands, based on Zagwijn and Van Staal­ �.r duinen (1975) and Ter \Xlee (1962). 1. Ma­ ..., \ ximal extent of land-ice; 2. Static p'11ases of \_ . ·, r .J the front of the land-ice. The spot where the I _, '--·�·�.:i hand-axe from Drouwen was found is in­ a-e dicated by an asterisk. Drawing by J. M. -- ,,.--...._ 1 2 Smit, B.A.I. the subdivisions published by German authors. stadials, with z distinct interstadials in between. It The latter speak of a "Drenthe phase" of the is clear from sedimentological research on fill in Saalian (ice cover) that should be placed in the first caves and abris that in France the Riss III was ex­ half of the Saalian ( e.g. oldstedt, l 9 5 8), while the tremely cold - distinctly colder than Riss I and II - \XI "\Xlarthe phase" is placed in the second half. Ac­ and also rather dry (Laville, 1973). This is also in­ cording to the Dutch geologists the \Xlarthe phase dicated by the fauna! evidence and the results of (when the land ice only reached as far as the sur­ pollen analysis. In Combe-Grenal Bordes excavated roundings of Hamburg) should be regarded as a 9 layers from the Ache11/ie11 s11pirie11r which date final static phase of the land ice, which was of little from Riss III. Not only the fauna (the dominant importance climatologically. For it has become species being reindeer) but also the pollen and se­ evident from pollen analysis that between the time dimentological analyses indicate extreme con­ when the ice receded from the Central Netherlands ditions (Bordes, Laville and Paquereau, l 966; and the beginning of the Eemian, there were no Bordes and Pratt, 1965). On the basis of these ob­ significant climatic fluctuations (interstadials) servations it would appear that the views of the (Zagwijn and Van Staalduinen, l 97 5 ; see fig. 4). Dutch geologists are not improbable, namely that In France the Riss is also subdivided into 3 there was maximal ice cover during the last stadial The hand-axe Jro111 Dro111ve11 of the Saalian and - at least in the Netherlands - no 3. THE HAND-AXE (figures 6 and 7) ice cover at all during earlier stadials. To summarize, with regard to the terJJ1i11!fs pos! The hand-axe is made of semitransparent grey finds in Drente from the boulder-sand (thus bryozoan flint.