6.2 Late Mesolithic sites

For the site-typological analysis of the late Mesolithic there are only 14 'clean' late Mesolithic sites available in the core region of Venray. Of the 35 sites on the distribution map, over half have been 'contaminated' by artefacts from other periods. Dating the Mesolithic sites is difficult, because on the one hand dating occurs exclusively on the basis of microlithic arrowheads and on the other hand many types of arrowhead had a relatively long period of use. We have chosen 5 types of microlith that occur more often during a specific phase than during the rest of the Mesolithic. These are the A-arrowhead, with a chronological emphasis in the early Mesolithic; the arrowheads with surface retouch (Feuille du Gui, leaf-like and triangular arrowhead), with a chronological emphasis in the middle Mesolithic; and finally the trapezia, characteristic of the late Mesolithic. Clean late Mesolithic sites always contain one or several trapezia and the percentage of other guide artefacts is less than 10%. For example, site 52B-7 contains 21 trapezia and only 1 Feuille du Gui and is therefore still considered a clean late Mesolithic site. The artefact composition of the 14 clean sites is provided in the table below.