3.4 Datable sites in the core region of Venray

In 1987 and 1988, as part of the Meuse Valley Project, the finds in museum and private collections (archaeological working groups and individual amateurs) deriving from the core region of Venray (2.6 and see Fig. 30) have been listed. In all, this comprises 356 sites. The general distribution pattern reveals two areas with a greater density of sites, one in the west, in the area where the brooks spring and one in the east, in the transition zone between the coversand and the Meuse valley. In between these two more-or-less SE-NW oriented areas with many sites, there is an area with a lower site density. This scattering is caused in part by the presence of the plaggen soils (2.7) and urban development in the central part of the research area. Due to the search methods (2.7) of the (amateur) archaeologists, this pattern has probably been reinforced even more. However, in part this pattern should also be attributed to the habitation decisions of Stone Age man. The void in the central part cannot be explained by post-depositional and research factors alone.

Of the 356 sites, 241 (67.6%) yielded guide artefacts from one or more cultural periods (3.3). The remaining 115 sites cannot be dated more accurately than Stone Age on the basis of the guide artefacts selected.

Fig. 35 Findspots in the core region of Venray which can be dated to one or more cultural periods