Wie het kleine niet eert… Micro-driehoeken in het Mesolithicum van Noord-Nederland

Samenvatting

Small is beautiful … Triangular microliths in the Mesolithic of the Northern Netherlands. In this article we take a closer look at the occurrence of so-called micro-triangles (defined by us as ≤ 10 mm) in the Northern Netherlands. Little attention has so far been paid to these examples of extreme microlithisation. The past few years have seen increasing evidence that these triangles are more common than hitherto assumed. One of the reasons why they have not been reported more often probably is a general lack of familiarity with these types; but also their poor visibility during field-surveys and the widely differing sieving strategies at excavations may be responsible. In future research, more attention should be given to these small artefacts, which date roughly between 8700 and 8000 BP. It is often (implicitly) assumed that triangles exhibit a chronological development from a predominance of isosceles triangles during the Early Mesolithic to relatively narrow and long scalene specimens during the Late Mesolithic. From an analysis of metric and non-metric traits of over 100 triangles from dated sites, such a clear-cut development could not be demonstrated for the Northern Netherlands.