Beschreibung:
This article investigates the firewood collection strategies at late Mesolithic and early and middle Neolithic Dutch wetland sites dating to 5500—3400 cal BC. It provides an overview of published and unpublished data of unworked, uncarbonised wood and wood charcoal from 15 sites in 3 regions. It is assumed that the unworked wood primarily represents the natural vegetation. The comparison of the wood and charcoal shows that the main factor influencing firewood collection is availability, as indicated by the use of a broad range of taxa and the predominant use of the most common taxa (primarily Alnus glutinosa ). There are additional indications of selective use and avoidance of taxa for fuel that vary between the regions. The preliminary comparison of data from sites without and with domesticates does not show any differences in fuel use that can be related to the Neolithisation process, suggesting that human impact did not change to any extent during the investigated period.