Brandwijk-Kerkhof is an open-air archaeological site located on a former river dune in the Rhine/Mass river area in the Netherlands, associated with Swifterbant culture. Occupied periodically between 4600-3630 cal BC, the site is considered a seasonal camp for hunting, fishing, fowling and gathering plants, rather than a long-term residential occupation. The site is important for tracking the extended transition in the Swifterbant culture from a strictly hunter-gatherer lifestyle to the adoption of elements of an agricultural lifestyle, which included reliance on crop and animal domestication.
Subsistence at Brandwijk
Animal bone collected from the site is dominated by small wild mammals and fish, with a few domestic dog, goat/sheep, cattle and pig in all layers. Wild plants represented include crabapple, hawthorne, blackthorn, blackberry and water chestnut.
Beginning in levels dated to about 4220 and 3940 cal BC, however, domestic crops including carbonized and uncarbonized grains of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccon), naked barley (Hordeum vulgare v. nudum) and poppy (Papaver somniferum) appear. This likely represents the transitional stage to adopted domestic crops in the Dutch wetland.
Although its clear that Brandwijk had access to cultivated crops, whether the crops were cultivated at the site is debatable. No flint artifacts with sickle gloss (plant residue recognized as evidence of grain harvesting) were discovered, and only one fragment of a grinding stone was recovered. Other sites providing a ca. 4000 cal BC date for transition to domesticate crops are at the Hardinxveld-Giessendam and Hazendonk sites.
Delay of Agriculture
Pottery and other cultural characteristics of the LBK arrived in southeastern Netherlands ca 5300 cal BC, but domestic plants were adopted in Swifterbant sites such as Brandwijk no earlier than 4370 BC or possibly later—the precise date of introduction is presently unknown.
Why the Swifterbant people were so slow to adopt the domestic lifeways of the LBK and the following Neolithic cultures (Rossen and Michelberg) is an excellent question. Possible reasons include environmental conditions, cultivation practices, a large variety of food sources in the wetlands making agriculture unnecessary, and/or, possibly, cultural and ideological resistance to changes.
Archaeological Studies at Brandwijk
The site was excavated by Leiden University by in 1991 under the direction of A. L. Van Gijn and M. Verbruggen. Botanical analysis of the materials was conducted by Leiden University and BIAX Consult.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the European Mesolithic, the Guide to the Linearbandkeramik, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Out, Welmoed A. 2008 Growing habits? Delayed introduction of crop cultivation at marginal Neolithic wetland sites. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17(Supplement 1):131-138. Free download
Out, Welmoed A. 2007 Neolithisation at the site Brandwijk-Kerkhof, the Netherlands: natural vegetation, human impact and plant food subsistence. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17(1):25-39. Free download
