6.3 Late Mesolithic: segment diagrams

From Table 14, the small number of arrowheads other than trapezia (only B and Feuille du Gui), is remarkable from a typochronological point of view. Borers and burins are rare in this period of the Mesolithic as well, on the basis of these data. Apart from some three small sites with less than ten artefacts, most sites are relatively sizeable. The composition of these large sites seems to show little variation: one or two of the tool types are missing and there are many other artefacts/production debris.

Not included in the table, but certainly important for the Neolithization process, is the occurrence of an admixture of a polished axe (52B-69), a pointed blade (52E-57) and a macrolithic artefact (52E-67 and 52E-172). These are guide artefacts of the Michelsberg culture in a late Mesolithic context and clearly indicate continuity from late Mesolithic into the Michelsberg phase. These sites are not considered to be 'contaminated sites' because here the raw material Grès Quartsit de Wommersom (GQW, Gendel 1982) has also been used as a guide artefact for the Mesolithic, the sole exception to the systematics of the Meuse Valley Project.

In the graphic display of the segment diagrams the aspects of the site composition mentioned above are apparent. Two sites tower above the rest in size (52B-7 and 52E-67). Although smaller, the other sites are a match for the two largest sites in their range of artefact types. Production debris predominates on all sites. The only sites with a different composition are the three small sites, of which 52B-153 shows some similarity with the large sites as well. The relative uniformity of the late Mesolithic sites is quite clear, in particular in the segments of the progressive class values.