Preliminary notes on the "Early and Middle Paleolithic" finds of Mr. T. Vermaning

Abstract

(p. 7)

From 1965 onwards, several groups of artefacts, including collections with an "Early or Middle Paleolithic" habitus, have been purchased for museums in the Netherlands from Mr. T. Vermaning.

The first of these assemblages consists of 127 artefacts of "Middle Paleolithic" character, foundaccording to Vermaning in two concentrations near Hogersmilde, prov. of Drente. These objects were bought by the Provincial Museum of Drente at Assen in 1965. In 1968, the Stichting Nederlandsch Museum voor Anthropologie en Praehistorie purchased from Vermaning a second, larger collection of artefacts (more than 400) also assumed to be of Middle Paleolithic age, and according to Vermaning found in the neighbourhood of Hijken, prov. of Drente.

Other objects sold by Vermaning include artefacts thought to date from periods of prehistory ranging from Early Paleolithic to Neolithic. Apart from these purchased artefacts, several other spectacular "finds" have been displayed by Vermaning, including a large collection from a third "Middle Paleolithic" find-spot (Eemster, prov. of Drente), and a smaller group, also assumed to be of Middle Paleolithic type, from various find spots near Ravenswoud, prov. of Friesland.

Research by the present author at the Biologisch Archaeologisch lnstituut in Groningen has indicated that all the artefacts classified as belonging to the Early or Middle Paleolithic periods, and also various objects thought to date from younger periods, are falsifications. The main arguments upon which this conclusion is based were summarized in a preliminary report which was presented to the proprietors of the museums concerned, and to the press; subsequently, this report was published in a Dutch archeological magazine (Stapert, 1975).