This article has aimed to provide a possible social and ecological explanation for the observed archaeological record for the neolithisation of the Scheldt basin. The observed 'stationary frontier' (cf. Zvelebil 1996) between the loess and sandy regions would have established particular contexts of contact between different hunting-fishing-gathering and agricultural populations. The model presented here shows that this contact was likely minimal due to the strength of hunter-fisher-gatherer resource procurement territoriality as a social mediating factor during contact with outside peoples. Instead of examining the archaeological record through preconfigured hypotheses of demic diffusion or indigenous adoption, I have aimed to provide a general survey of the various cultural landscapes that existed in the Scheldt basin at the Mesolithic-Neolithic interface. This article has merely proposed a preliminary outline of a neolithisation model taking into account the relationship between socioecology, social contact, and cultural transmission. We are currently far away from establishing secure models for cultural transmission during the neolithisation of the Scheldt basin; however, this article has taken a preliminary look at an essential aspect of this modelling procedure. These models await forthcoming research into surveys from previously understudied areas, spatial analyses of regional site frequencies and assemblage compositions, and reassessment of both Late/Final Mesolithic and Early/Middle Neolithic assemblages in the light of new scientific methodologies and cultural transmission theories. The true validity of this model will be upheld or dismissed with future testing of hypotheses steming from the general analytical framework/outline established here.
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Last updated: Wed Oct 3 2007