Bladspitsen en de ‘Grote Trek naar het Westen’ van de laatste Neanderthalers in Noordelijk Europa

Samenvatting

Leafpoints and the ‘Great Trek to the West’ by the last Neanderthals in northern Europe. The last cultural tradition of the Neanderthals in central and northern Europe is the Leafpoint Group, which comprises several phases and regional variants. A chronological sequence may be noted: an earlier phase with predominantly bifacial leafpoints (Mauern type), and a later phase with unifacial leafpoints made of sturdy blades (Jerzmanowice type). A distribution map shows that the proportion of unifacial leafpoints increases from east to west, which suggests a ‘Great Trek to the West’ by the Neanderthals of this tradition, after about 40,000 radiocarbon years BP. They were moving away from the expanding area occupied by the Cro-Magnons, which suggests that the interaction between the two human species was not always peaceful. Several very large leafpoints from sites such as Mauern and Ranis are exceptionally beautiful and show great craftsmanship. One could almost regard such ‘show tools’ as the Neanderthals’ equivalent of ‘art’. It is suggested that these extraordinary tools reflect some kind of social hierarchy within Neanderthal societies.