Title
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
Author
van Balen, R.T.
Busschers, F.S.
TNO Bouw en Ondergrond
Publication year
2010
Abstract
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.
Subject
Earth & Environment
GM - Geomodelling
EELS - Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences
Geosciences
Artefacts
Late saalian
MIS 6
Rhenen
The netherlands
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http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d771e905-449c-4db0-9a03-e0a657dde99c
TNO identifier
408466
ISSN
0016-7746
Source
Geologie en Mijnbouw/Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, 89 (1), 77-83
Document type
article