Rekem : a 'Federmesser' camp on the Meuse river bank

Rekem : a 'Federmesser' camp on the Meuse river bank

Marc De Bie & Jean-Paul Caspar

Leuven; Asse-Zellik

Leuven University Press, Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium

2000

2 dl. [325 p., 265 p., [4] vouwbl. pl.]

ill.

31 cm

boek

Archeologie in Vlaanderen, Monografie, 1370-5768; 3
Acta Archaeologica Lovaniensia, Monographiae; 10

9058670112

By combining various research methods, the authors of this two-volume book present a reconstruction of prehistoric life in one of the largest Palaeolithic camp sites excavated in NW Europe:
the Federmesser camp at Rekem (near Maastricht), situated on a sand ridge on the left bank of the river Meuse. Following careful excavation and the individual mapping of some 25,000 stone
artefacts across an area of 1.7 ha, the 13,000-year-old assemblage has been subjected to a range of laboratory analyses. Refitting of several thousand artefacts (tools, tool waste, and
debitage) in their original sequence of knapping, shed light on lithic manufacturing, tooling, and maintenance processes. Use-wear analysis of 2,500 pieces has unveiled a series of activities
performed at and away from the camp area: hunting and arrow manufacture, butchery, hide fleshing and currying, bone and antler work, etc. These results were systematically tested with
appropriate experiments. Lastly, extensive spatial analyses of all the above observations allowed for a neat reconstruction of the chain of activities performed in this hunter-gatherer
settlement, where the locations of the work areas, in the dwellings, near communal hearths or at specific work shops, also hint at fascinating aspects of social and ritual life in a

Met lit. opg.
Taal: Engels met samenvatting in het Nederlands en Frans

paleolithicum, Federmesser

Rekem, Maas, België