“There is a very old world under our feet. Who knows what we’re going to find here!,” Said Jelke Take of the archaeological research agency De Sample. This summer and also next year, various archaeologists from the Bureau and from Stichting Steentijd Research Nederland (Stone) are going to conduct deep-digging research into Neanderthal-tracking. Traces that are at least 50,000 years old.
For 20 years, archaeologists have been searching for traces from the Neanderthal time, on a field near Peest along the Donderseweg and next to nature reserve the Noordsche Veld. In recent years, 650 edited flints and other objects have already been found. The researchers on the plot also found more fist axes than in all the Northern Netherlands. That makes the land the largest location of Neanderthal objects in the northern half of our country.
But those objects were all found on the surface of the ground level. Through drilling, the researchers now want to do, literally, more profound research. “We start with soil drilling, taking samples from the deep soil layers. On the basis of plant residues and pollen, an expert can then reconstruct the landscape of 50,000 years ago.”
The information gives the researchers more context how people lived in this place. “Based on the results of the soil samples, we can dig deeper. That must be very careful, because because of that digging you can also disrupt the archaeological research.”
In recent years, various concentrations of Neanderthal artifacts have been discovered in the field. Along the road, on the edge of the stream valley and on the eastern edge of the field.
“Based on the concentration of finds, we assume that the Neanderthals, over a period of thousands of years, occasionally visited. They have slaughtered animals and flints here to use as a tool. In short, they have lived here,” Take indicates.
Archaeologist Marcel Niekus found a fist ax last February. “We had just had a working visit from the province and I walked back to the car. Then my eye fell on a flint. When I picked it up it turned out to be a fist ax from the Neanderthal time.”
The field was a well -preserved secret among archaeologists for years, but the place is now known by the purchase of the province. The archaeologists are not afraid that curious people themselves will investigate and disrupt the place. “You can never prevent strolling around, but I don’t expect any crowds of people who look for flints. Moreover, they are very difficult to recognize.”
Niekus is looking forward to the upcoming archaeological research over the next two years. “A deep wish is that we find a bone of a reindeer or mammoth, where cutting tracks can still be seen. That makes the picture complete.”