Western visitors at the Blätterhöhle (city of Hagen, southern Westphalia) during the Younger Dryas? A new final palaeolithic assemblage type in western Germany.

Until now, it was considered certain that the last reindeer hunters of the Ahrensburgian (tanged point groups) existed exclusively in northwestern Central Europe during the Younger Dryas Cold Period (~ Greenland Stadial 1). The excavations carried out since 2006 on the forecourt (Vorplatz) of the small Blätterhöhle in Hagen on the northern edge of the Sauerland uplands of southern Westphalia (North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany) have now changed this view. Beneath a surprisingly extensive sequence of Mesolithic find horizons, Pleistocene sediments could be reached whose excavations yielded a Final Palaeolithic lithic ensemble of the Younger Dryas, unusual for the region and beyond. It is characterised by numerous backed lithic projectile points of high variability. Comparisons suggest a typological-technological connection with the Western European Laborian / Late Laborian. Neither in the nearer nor in the wider surroundings has a comparable lithic find ensemble been found so far. In addition, there is a lack of clear evidence for the reindeer in the fauna. Surprisingly, the vast majority of radiocarbon dates of bones and charcoals from the investigated archaeological horizon of the Final Pleistocene proved to be significantly older than expected from their stratigraphic position. This phenomenon has not yet been clarified.

Sacred offerings or profane waste? Burned animal remains as an indication of Bronze and Iron Age disposal strategies.

Carbonised and calcined animal bones are regularly present in archaeological contexts. If they appear in combination with human burial sites, especially cremations, their function as food offerings is a safe guess. The occurrence of burnt animal bones in only small quantities rarely causes debate, as faunal remains usually come into contact with heat during food preparation - for example cooking over an open fire or in an oven, resulting in partial carbonisation - which can extend to the complete destruction of the organic components (calcination). However, if burned and calcined bones are present in unusually high proportions, they often provoke the impression that they are the relics of religious acts, e.g. ritual feasts or burning sacrifices. This study uses the faunal remains from two Bronze to Iron Age sites in the Jülicher Börde (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) to demonstrate that not only the location and situation of the deposit, but also, in particular, the distribution of burning traces on the various skeletal elements found in the different animal species, can provide important information about profane or religiously motivated deposition.