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Vlaardingen Culture was an archaeological culture on the border of the middle and late
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
era in what is now the coastal region in the west of the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. Archeologists found in 1958 in
Vlaardingen Vlaardingen () is a city in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is located on the north bank of the Nieuwe Maas river at the confluence with the Oude Maas. The municipality administers an area of , of which is land, with residents in . Geog ...
, a city near
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
, objects from the period between 3500 BC and 2500 BC which justify the designation as a separate culture. Utensils were made of wood and bone, and polished small stone axes were found, which appear to originate from Belgium. Also needles and the remains of a primitive canoe were found. This hunting and fishing culture was
sedentary Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like soci ...
and
semi-nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the p ...
. In the old dunes at the then much further east lying coastline the remains of some
peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...
settlements were found. From these findings it can be deduced that animal husbandry (sheep and goats) and agriculture (wheat and
barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...
) had been practised on a small scale. Vlaardingen culture also had traits of a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer society because agriculture in much of the Wadden Sea area and the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta was difficult. Hunting and fishing were important means of livelihood. Bones found near the settlements of deer, bears, otters and sturgeon support that. Vlaardingen culture co-existed with the more land inward Funnel beaker culture to which it shows similarities and differences. Based on the pottery and the occupied environment, the Vlaardingen culture and the Funnel beaker culture seem clearly distinguishable from one another. When the Funnel beaker culture ceased to exist, the
Corded Ware culture The Corded Ware culture comprises a broad archaeological horizon of Europe between ca. 3000 BC – 2350 BC, thus from the late Neolithic, through the Copper Age, and ending in the early Bronze Age. Corded Ware culture encompassed a v ...
succeeded it. The Vlaardingen culture, however, endured in the west (3400–2500 BC), until it was finally succeeded by the Corded Ware culture as well.


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Vlaardingen Culture
Vlaardingen Archaeological cultures of Western Europe Neolithic cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures in the Netherlands Mesolithic cultures of Europe Stone Age Europe 1958 archaeological discoveries