Contents -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: Living in a dynamic (cultural) landscape -- 1.1 INTRODUCTION -- 1.2 WHY STUDY BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENTS? -- The lure of the landscape -- Studying Bronze Age prehistoric settlement sites -- 1.3 SETTLEMENT ANALYSIS AND BRONZE AGE STUDIES: THE ONSET -- 1.4 PREVIOUS APPROACHES TO DUTCH BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT SITES -- The first settlement sites -- The farmstead as settlement component -- The role of houses in settlement studies -- Evaluation of previous Bronze Age settlement research -- 1.5 BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT SITES: HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS? -- 1.6 THE SELECTION OF A STUDY AREA: THE DUTCH CENTRAL RIVER AREA -- A dynamic physical landscape -- A dynamic cultural landscape -- 1.7 FORMULATION OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS -- Settlement sites -- House-sites -- Houses -- 1.8 INTRODUCING THE DATA SET: BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT SITES IN THE DUTCH RIVER AREA -- Accessibility of documentation -- Simplified comparison -- 1.9 RESEARCH CONTEXT -- 1.10 A LIVING LANDSCAPE: RESEARCH OUTLINE -- 2 The Dutch central river area: fluvial dynamics and palaeogeography -- 2.1 INTRODUCTION -- 2.2 PALAEOGEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH HISTORY -- 2.3 THE DUTCH RIVER AREA: PROCESSES AND DYNAMICS -- 2.3.1 TYPES OF DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS IN THE STUDY AREA -- 2.3.2 MORPHOLOGICAL RIVER TYPES -- Braided rivers -- Straight rivers -- Meandering rivers -- Anastomosing rivers -- 2.3.3 CREVASSE SPLAY DEPOSITS -- 2.3.4 LITHOGENETIC DESCRIPTIONS OF FLUVIAL DEPOSITS -- Non-fluvial deposits -- 2.3.5 POST-DEPOSITIONAL PROCESSES -- Vegetation horizons -- Erosion -- 2.3.6 CHANGES IN RIVER TYPE DISTRIBUTION -- 2.4 PERIODICITY OF FLUVIAL DYNAMICS IN RELATION TO HUMAN TIME-SCALES -- 2.4.1 INSTANT (CATASTROPHIC) EVENTS -- 2.4.2 SEASONAL TO YEARLY EVENTS -- 2.4.3 GENERATIONAL EVENTS -- 2.4.4 EVENTS AT THE CENTURIES TIME-SCALE -- 2.4.5 TIME-SCALES OF CENTURIES TO A MILLENNIUM.

2.5 VEGETATION DEVELOPMENT OF (PAST) FLUVIAL LANDSCAPES -- 2.5.1 INTRODUCTION -- 2.5.2 FACTORS AFFECTING VEGETATION RECONSTRUCTION OF FLUVIAL LANDSCAPES -- 2.5.3 VEGETATION DEVELOPMENT OF ALLUVIAL GEOGENETIC FACIES -- River beaches -- Levees -- Crevasse splays -- Floodbasins -- 2.5.4 TWO EXAMPLES OF VEGETATION RECONSTRUCTIONS FOR MBA-B SETTLEMENT SITES -- Zijderveld -- Eigenblok -- Human impact? -- 2.6 SIMPLIFIED PALAEOGEOGRAPHY FOR THE DUTCH RIVER AREA C. 2450-450 CAL BC -- c. 2450 - 2050 cal BC -- fig. 2.16, A -- c. 2050 - 1650 cal BC -- fig. 2.16, B -- c. 1650 - 1250 cal BC -- fig. 2.16, C -- c. 1250 - 850 cal BC -- fig. 2.16, D -- c. 850 - 450 cal BC -- fig. 2.16, E -- 2.7 IMPLICATIONS FOR ARCHAEOLOGY -- 2.7.1 PROPERTIES OF ACTIVE FLUVIAL LANDSCAPES -- 2.7.2 PROPERTIES OF PASSIVE FLUVIAL LANDSCAPES -- 2.7.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DISTRIBUTION AND DISCOVERY OF BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT SITES IN THEDUTCH CENTRAL RIVER AREA -- Braided rivers? -- Meandering rivers -- Anastomosing rivers -- Crevasse splay deposits -- Nature of the archaeological phenomena and archaeological visibility -- 2.7.4 A METHODOLOGY FOR DISCOVERING (BRONZE AGE) SETTLEMENT SITES ON OR NEAR FORMER FLUVIAL SYSTEMS IN THEDUTCH RIVER AREA -- 3 Terminology, models and premises: backgrounds to studies of Dutch Bronze Age settlement systems -- 3.1 INTRODUCTION -- 3.2 CONCEPTS IN SETTLEMENT ARCHAEOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS USED IN THIS STUDY -- 3.2.1 DEFINING THE SETTLEMENT -- 3.2.2 DEFINING AND STUDYING HOUSE-SITES: APPROACH AND TERMINOLOGY -- 3.2.3 CRITERIA FOR BRONZE AGE HOUSE RECOGNITION AND RECONSTRUCTION -- Constructional properties of houses -- Extent of excavation -- Feature density -- Feature appearance -- Relative feature depth16 -- Structure validation strategies -- Available parallels -- Houses in diachronic perspective -- 3.2.4 SETTLEMENT SITES AND HOUSE-SITES AS UNITS OF STUDY.

3.2.5 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE: CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES -- Cultural landscapes -- The cultural biographic approach -- 3.3 MODELS CURRENT IN DUTCH LATER PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT ARCHAEOLOGY -- 3.3.1 THE 'WANDERING FARMSTEAD' MODEL -- 3.3.2 THE 'WANDERING FARMSTEAD' MODEL: TRACING ITS ORIGINS -- 3.3.3 EXTENDING THE 'WANDERING FARMSTEAD' MODEL -- Graves and fields -- Local communities -- Landscape characteristics -- Social aspects -- biographies of houses and households -- 3.3.4 MODELS FOR SETTLEMENT DYNAMICS: A CONCLUSION -- Descriptive models -- Useful models? -- 3.4 PREMISES IN SETTLEMENT ARCHAEOLOGY -- 3.4.1 FARMHOUSE OCCUPANTS AND SOCIAL GROUP SIZE -- The size of local communities? -- 3.4.2 WOOD DURABILITY -- On the longevity of wood used on Bronze Age house-sites -- Direct evidence for Bronze Age construction wood durability -- 3.4.3 THE FIT BETWEEN HOUSES AND HOUSEHOLD LIFE CYCLES -- 3.4.4 SOIL-DEPLETION -- Soil-depletion and its relation to domestic mobility -- 3.5 CONCLUSIONS: BEYOND CONCEPTS AND MODELS -- 4 Case studies: Bronze Age settlement sites in the Dutch river area -- 4.1 INTRODUCTION -- 4.2 ZIJDERVELD -- 4.2.1 INTRODUCTION -- 4.2.2 GENERAL REMARKS -- 4.2.3 THE ZIJDERVELD EXCAVATIONS -- Houses -- House-sites -- Settlement site -- Settlement and landscape -- 4.2.4 CONCLUSIONS -- 4.3 EIGENBLOK AND ENSPIJK -- 4.3.1 INTRODUCTION -- 4.3.2 GENERAL REMARKS -- 4.3.3 THE ENSPIJK EXCAVATION -- Houses -- House-sites -- Settlement site -- Settlement and landscape -- 4.3.4 THE EIGENBLOK EXCAVATION -- Houses -- House-sites -- Settlement site -- Settlement and landscape -- 4.3.6 CONCLUSIONS -- 4.4 DE BOGEN -- 4.4.1 INTRODUCTION -- 4.4.2 GENERAL REMARKS -- 4.4.3 THE DE BOGEN EXCAVATIONS -- Late Neolithic -- Early Bronze Age -- The Middle Bronze Age-A -- The problem of the 'early' houses -- The Middle Bronze Age-B -- Houses -- House-sites.

Settlement sites -- Settlement and landscape -- 4.4.4 CONCLUSIONS -- 4.5 WIJK BIJ DUURSTEDE -- 4.5.1 INTRODUCTION -- 4.5.2 GENERAL REMARKS -- 4.5.3 THE WIJK BIJ DUURSTEDE EXCAVATIONS -- Houses -- House-sites -- Settlement site -- Settlement and landscape -- 4.5.4 CONCLUSIONS -- 4.6 LIENDEN -- 4.6.1 INTRODUCTION -- 4.6.2 GENERAL REMARKS -- 4.6.3 THE LIENDEN EXCAVATION -- Houses -- House-sites -- Settlement site -- Settlement and landscape -- 4.6.4 CONCLUSIONS -- 4.7 DODEWAARD -- 4.7.1 INTRODUCTION -- 4.7.2 GENERAL REMARKS -- 4.7.3 THE DODEWAARD EXCAVATION -- Houses -- House-sites -- Settlement site -- Settlement and landscape -- 4.7.4 CONCLUSIONS -- 5 Bronze Age settlement site elements -- 5.1 INTRODUCTION -- 5.2 THE PHASING AND DATING OF DUTCH BRONZE AGE HOUSES -- 5.2.1 LIKE NO OTHER? DUTCH EARLY BRONZE AGE HOUSES -- The onset: Early Bronze Age houses -- Dutch Early Bronze Age houses in a Central- and Northwest European perspective -- Disputable claims for Early Bronze Age and two-aisled house plans -- Conclusion -- 5.2.2 A DARK AGE? HOUSES FROM THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE-A? -- Claimed Middle Bronze Age-A houses -- Houses, sites and the problem of the Middle Bronze Age-A -- Hilversum-style decorated pottery -- Where have all the (Middle Bronze Age-A) houses gone? Evidence of absence? -- The quest for Middle Bronze Age-A houses: looking abroad -- Middle Bronze Age-A houses: a conclusion -- 5.2.3 MIDDLE BRONZE AGE-B HOUSES -- THEIR DATING AND TYPOLOGY -- 5.2.3.1 THE START OF THE TRADITION OF THREE-AISLED FARMHOUSES -- Circumstantial evidence? -- Direct dates: Middle Bronze Age houses dated by construction wood -- On the usefulness of indirect dates -- A classification of Dutch Bronze Age radiocarbon dates from Bronze Age settlement sites -- 5.2.3.2 THE TYPOLOGY OF DUTCH MIDDLE BRONZE AGE FARMHOUSES.

The traditional Dutch Middle Bronze Age farmhouse typo(chrono)logy -- Objections to the traditional typology -- A preliminary typology of Middle Bronze Age(-B) farmhouses -- Problems and limitations -- 5.2.3.3 A REGIONAL APPROACH TO (THE TYPOLOGY OF) DUTCH MIDDLE BRONZE AGE FARMHOUSES -- Houses from the Dutch river area -- Houses from the south Netherlands sandy areas -- Houses from the eastern Netherlands -- Houses from the northern Netherlands -- Houses from West-Friesland -- Houses from other geogentic regions? -- The ice-pushed hills and associated deposits -- Coastal areas -- 5.2.3.4 A SUPRA-REGIONAL APPROACH TO MIDDLE BRONZE AGE HOUSES -- 5.2.4 LATE BRONZE AGE HOUSES -- THE DEMISE OF SUPRA-REGIONAL SIMILARITIES -- The northern Netherlands -- The eastern Netherlands -- The ice-pushed hills -- West-Friesland -- The southern Netherlands -- The river area -- Late Bronze Age houses: regional diversification in house construction -- 5.2.5 THE RETURN OF HOUSE-VISIBILITY: EARLY IRON AGE HOUSES -- 5.3 BARN- OR SHED-TYPES OF OUTBUILDINGS -- 5.4 GRANARY-TYPE OUTBUILDINGS -- Four-post outbuildings or granaries? Evidence forpossible functions -- Granary-type outbuildings from the Netherlands -- Distribution and dating -- 5.5 FENCES AND PALISADES -- Fences -- Palisades -- 5.6 DITCHES -- Eaves-drip ditches? -- House plot drainage ditches -- Parcelling and drainage ditches -- Inter-settlement ditches? -- 5.7 PITS AND WELLS -- Definitions and classifications -- Pits and their relation to houses -- Refuse pits -- Silos -- Storage pits -- Hearths and fire-pits? -- Wells and drinking pools -- 5.8 OTHER POSSIBLE SETTLEMENT SITE ELEMENTS -- Two-posters? -- Three-post linear structures? -- Round structures -- Pits with irregular post settings -- Irregular to U-shaped post settings -- Burnt areas -- Gardens? -- 5.9 NON-SETTLEMENT SITE ELEMENTS? -- Pottery production.

Bronzes and bronze working.