Toch vondsten uit het Midden-Paleolithicum bij Noordhorn (Gr.)

Samenvatting

At long last: Middle Paleolithic finds from Noordhorn (province of Groningen). In this article we briefly describe two Middle Palaeolithic flint artefacts, a flake and a core, that were recently (2009 and 2011, respectively) found by the fourth and fifth authors at Noordhorn, a village approximately 15 km to the northwest of the city of Groningen. The findspot, on a boulderclay ridge, bears witness to extensive occupation during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Thousands of flint artefacts from these periods have been collected there intermittently since the late 1970s / early 1980s, but evidence of earlier occupation had so far been lacking. Given the surface modifications present on the two artefacts, especially the wind-gloss which must have developed during the Upper Pleniglacial, both date to the Middle Palaeolithic. They can be described as a simple hard-percussion flake and a discoid, Levallois-like core. Noordhorn is the second Middle Palaeolithic site in the province of Groningen after De Wijert-Zuid, where a flake was found in the early 1980s. More finds are expected in the years to come.