Bladspitsen en pogingen daartoe: souvenirs van de laatste Neanderthalers in Nederland

Samenvatting

Leafpoints and attempts at leafpoints: souvenirs of the last Neanderthals in the Netherlands. A handful of leafpoints are known from the Netherlands. These include four bifacial ones of the Mauern type: from Emmen, De Krim (which is unfinished), Leusderheide near Leusden, and Eindhoven. Only one unifacial leafpoint (Jerzmanowice type) is known: a fragment from the Aardjesberg near Hilversum. Recently, several bifacially worked pieces have turned up in the province of Drenthe: at Balloo, Zeijen and Zuidlaren. These are interpreted as unsuccessful preforms of bifacial leafpoints. The artefact from Zuidlaren can be attributed to a young person; the piece shows a series of step fractures indicating incompetent knapping. A map is presented showing the distribution of leafpoints in Great Britain and the Benelux. It can be seen that especially in Britain unifacial leafpoints predominate; these were most probably made by the last groups of Neanderthals in northern Europe.