6.10 Beaker period: conclusions

The combination of the various display techniques allows, we feel, a division of the 20 clean sites from the Beaker period into two types of settlement:

• a group of intermediate and large sites with a relatively wide range of artefact types. Pottery and production debris are predominant, but other artefact types occur. An interpretation of these as domestic sites seems therefore most likely. The small pottery sites also belong in this group.
• a small group of sites with arrowheads, possibly indicative of hunting activities.

The spatial distribution of the sites shows a clear pattern. The domestic sites are all together in a small area near Meerlo and Tienraij, in the transition zone from coversand to Meuse Valley. This concentration might be the result of a process whereby small agrarian settlements (single farmsteads) relocate regularly in an area. This is also the area where excavations have revealed the presence of burial mounds (Verlinde 1971; Verwers 1964; 1966). Remarkably, all arrowhead sites are just outside this concentration, near brooks.