Stone Age in Haarlem, Stichting Archeologische Werkgroep Haarlem

Locations
inner city of
Haarlem.

he Stone Age or Paleolithicum goes back to 250.000 years ago. But because Haarlem's oldest archaeological finds date from the Late Stone Age, the Neolithicum (5300-2000 BC.), our story starts there.

In Neolithic times polished stone tools appear as well as knapped stone tools. At the same time the first agrarian societies settle in more or less permanent settlements and pottery appears.

At the basis of the European Neolithicum are the gathering societies of the Near East who could stay at one place due to the harvest of wild grain, while hunting, gathering and fishing. Because a yearly supply could be stored in special containers people didn't have to move around any longer.
After some time these first grains had changed so much that people could store sowing-grains and grow these on specially cultivated fields.

The population grew and a non-productive elite emerged, caused by the production of surplus.
This growing population together with climatic conditions, must have been an important cause for the spread of the agrarian societies in all directions.

Some suppose that the increasing importance of agriculture and the rise of settlements limited the hunters' freedom of movement in the long run forcing people into the new economic way of living.
Between the discovery of agriculture and the introduction in the Netherlands lies some thousand years.

Haarlem and surroundings
Oldest find of Haarlem
Bell beaker culture
Oldest
remains of agriculture

n the Middle Neolithic period (4200-2850 BC.) little hunting groups with there specific huntingspace were still living in the Netherlands next to the first agrarian societies.
Every huntinggroup occupied a few bigger camps which were visited in a cyclic pattern. Remains of these camps where only found on higher sandgrounds.

Along the coast they had summercamps. Most of the time these camps laid on sandbanks along creeks or swamps so they could fish for river- as well as seafish.
The growth on the dunes provided an important part of the vegetable food such as apples, blackberries, hazels and hawthorn. In the lower, more humid parts they hunted for typical wateranimals such as beavers, otters, seals and birds.

Little by little people switched to agriculture.
In the beginning it didn't bring in enough. So hunting, fishing and gathering was necessary for a long time.

Remains of the semi-agricultural Vlaardingenculture (3500-2500 BC.), were found north of Haarlem in the Velserbroekpolder while digging a recreation pond.

In the present Schalkwijk, a housing estate east of Haarlem, an axe made of brown quartzite was found out of context which probably originated from a nearby sand barrier. This axe of Schalkwijk most likely dates to Middle Neolithicum, thus before ± 3600 BC. and therefore Haarlems oldest find.

ecause of improving climatic conditions the coastal arear could permanently be inhabitted.

The oldest remains of occupation in the inner city of Haarlem date from the Late-Neolithicum (2850 - 2000 BC.). From this period are the finds of potsherds of Bell beaker pottery. Bell beaker pottery can be seen as the settlementpottery of the Bell beaker culture.
These people already had intensive contacts over long distances.

Bell beaker sherds are found at excavations at the Grote Markt, the Morinnesteeg, the Jansstraat and the Jansweg and at observations at the Schoterweg / Kleverlaan.

Bell beaker sherds found at the Grote Markt.
(Move your mouse over the photo in order to see the sketch.)

The early Bell beakers have a slight S-shaped profile. The Bell beaker culture is called after the shape of their later beakers: an upside-down clock or bell.
The geometric decoration is from the bottom to the edge brought up with a spatula or little comb in different zones.

The oldest remains of agriculture in Haarlem were found at the Jansweg and the Morinnesteeg. Here Bell beaker sherds, particles of charcoal and burnt bone were found together with the marks of an ard , indicating a ploughed field. This may suggest manuring the fields with domestic waste.

Marks of an ard at the Morinnesteeg..

On both the drawing and the photo crossing marks of an ard can be seen: in successive seasons people cultivated the ground in different directions.

Pollenresearch points to a woody landscape in which alder, oak and hazel dominated.

used literature