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Andernach-Martinsberg is a late Pleistocene Palaeolithic site in the Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Location and history
The site of Andernach-Martinsberg lies on the left bank of the River Rhine at the point where the river leaves the flat and open landscape of the Neuwied Basin, flowing through the narrow channel of the Andernacher Pforte (Andernach Gate) into the narrow Rhine Gorge to the Northwest. The Martinsberg is a sloping promontory of land formed by a basalt lava flow of Middle Pleistocene age. Here in 1883 quarrying of pumice deposited by the Late Glacial eruption of the Laacher See volcano uncovered the first of many late glacial sites in the Neuwied Basin. It was partially excavated by Hermann Schaaffhausen but the location became forgotten until chance rediscovery in 1979. The site now lies in a residential area. The Martinsberg is sheltered by the Krahnenberg to the west, and the Haselberg, on the opposite bank of the Rhine, to the north, both of which rise steeply to a height of over 200m OD. The Magdalenian site Gönnersdorf is situated less than 2 km away on the opposite side of the river.

Excavation
From 1979-1983, four campaigns of excavation at Andernach investigated a larger area of something more than 100 m² and a series of test pits, mainly 1m² in size. The 1981 excavation confirmed that the both the new finds and material excavated by Hermann Schaaffhausen comprises elements from at least two occupations (Magdalenian and Federmessergruppen) of the Martinsberg.

The lithic assemblages were distinguishable by a range of criteria, such as the raw materials used, extrapolation from the stratigraphic position of artefacts in certain Magdalenian contexts and by the use of typological criteria.

Most animal bones could also be assigned to a specific cultural horizon on the basis of several criteria including species identification, state of preservation (which can also be applied to small and indeterminable bone fragments), stratigraphic considerations, spatial patterning and refitting.

Renewed excavations from #### - #### located some ## m from the 1980s surface also found both Magdalenian and Federmessergruppen material.

Geology
The underlying lava flow at the Martinsberg is dissected by cooling fissures covered by basaltic slag and lapilli. This looser material has, in places, been eroded away, and the open chambers subsequently filled by loessic sediment. Important erosional movement of loess and reworked archaeological material into the fissures followed the Magdalenian occupation and only came to an end after the Final Palaeolithic occupation.

Dating
AMS radiocarbon dates for the Magdalenian dates are generally in good agreement, clustering around 13,000 BP, and are similar to the dates for Gönnersdorf. Dates on bone of the younger horizon are at least some 1,000 radiocarbon years younger and appear to fall into two groups. A group of results around 11,800 BP is consistent with the deeper stratigraphic position of many Federmessergruppen finds well below the Allerød Interstadial soil development and their high degree of vertical displacement, suggesting the elapse of some time between their deposition and the Laacher See eruption at 11,000 BP (13,000 cal BP). Other, younger finds date to the second half of the Allerød Interstadial much closer to the eruption.

Structures
The Magdalenian occupation level at Andernach-Martinsberg contains four distinct concentrations of lithic tools and settlement waste. Three concentrations (1, 3 and 4) are associated with slabs and blocks of schist, quartzite, basalt and other rocks interpreted as the paved surfaces of stable dwelling structures, probably inhabited on repeated occasions over the course of several years.

Concentration 2 lacks a paved surface, and is located around a deep fissure, open at the time of occupation. The dominance of burins and resharpening spalls and a large number of ivory fragments suggest intensive working of the latter material in Concentration 2.

All structures are associated with pits dug into the underlying sediment. In some cases these may have been structural post holes, but the presence of large quantities of fire-cracked quartz suggests that some pits may have functioned as cooking pits in conjunction with pot-boilers.

Lithic assemblage
The Magdalenian lithic assemblage results from activities carried out in association with structures interpreted as dwellings (Concentrations 1, 3 and 4) or specialized work areas (Concentration 2).

Different lithic raw material groups in the different concentrations provide good evidence for the logistics of the Magdalenian group(s) and show that there was contact to regions lying more than 100 km to the northwest and northeast of the Neuwied Basin.

In Concentrations 1 and 3 the most important lithic raw material is Tertiary quartzite. "Baltic" flint is also important in these Concentrations. Conjoined artefacts of quartzite and other raw materials (chalcedony, Baltic flint, Simpelveld flint) show that there is a connection between Concentrations 1 and 3, which extends beyond the latter to the north-eastern area excavated in 1883 by Herman Schaaffhausen. The tool spectra of Concentrations 1 and 3 contain all forms usual for an Upper Magdalenian inventory, with a dominance of scrapers over burins.

The raw material spectra of Concentrations 2 and 4 are dominated by flint from Upper Cretaceous chalk formations and / or the terrace gravels of the Meuse, some 100 km to the northwest, together with a form of quartzite. The absence of any primary debitage in Concentration 2 suggests that ready-manufactured blades were brought to the site. The presence of Meuse flint in the south fissure is due to erosion over a period of time, as shown by refitted artefact sequences with components stratified at different levels of the fissure fill. The presence of Meuse flint, but not Tertiary quartzite in the deeper levels of the fissure suggests infilling must have begun at a time when Tertiary quartzite was not present, perhaps providing an indication of the relative chronology of the Magdalenian occupation.

Tools of organic materials
The site yielded a wide range of artefacts of bone, mammoth ivory and reindeer antler, including bâtons percés, projectile points, eyed-needles and the cores from their production, and barbed points.

Ivory is found across the site, but evidence for ivory working is limited to Concentration 2. The objects within the other two concentrations (female figurines, projectile points) can all have been produced previously and elsewhere.

Although reindeer antler fragments are well represented over the excavated area, the distribution of finished artefacts is more limited and defined by the three Concentrations. Artefacts are rare within Concentration 2. By contrast, Concentration 1 is well provided with antler tools. Differentiated zonation appears to be recognizable, with a central spread of antler spalls surrounded by antler tools - smoothers, bâtons percés and, possibly, projectile points.

Personal ornament
Many mammal teeth and mollusc shell were worked into items of personal ornament (beads, pendants). The shells were identified as Dentalium vulgare, Dentalium dentale and Cyclope neriteus and Homalopoma sanguineum, including a small depot of 49 specimens of the latter species in Concentration 2. All were probably recent, not fossil, and have a distribution in the Mediterranean and along the southern French Atlantic coast. Their association in Concentration 2 with Meuse flint suggests that a major axis of communication to the West and South existed during the Magdalenian, possibly along the northern edge of the Upland Zone or via the Rhine and Rhone valleys. Smaller amounts of ornament found in the other concentrations are dominated by tooth pendants, in some cases probably produced at the site from hunted animals.

Art
A number of the schist plaques used as building material are engraved. They fall into different categories.

Engravings of animals are carried out naturalistically and with great skill and species such as horse and mammoth are immediately recognizable. By contrast, depictions of human female figures are highly stylised and are in often reduced to an abstract cliché.

A total of 20 figurines, mostly of ivory and including specimens still in the process of manufacture and an exceptionally large (20 cm) specimen without direct parallels are stylistically similar to the engravings.

Fauna and subsistence
Of 4,793 individually registered bone fragments assigned to the Magdalenian assemblage 3,165 (66%) are identified to species.

The large mammal fauna is dominated by remains of horse (Equus sp.), which is represented by a minimum of 12 individuals. The second most common species (by number of bone fragments) in the Magdalenian level is reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), with at least three hunted individuals represented by postcranial remains. Eight individuals represented by incisor teeth may have contributed nothing to the diet of this occupation phase.

Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) is the third largest component of the fauna by number of bone fragments (263) and the second largest by number of identified individuals (seven). Fox bones and unmodified teeth are clearly concentrated within Concentration 1 and it is likely that the animals were processed inside the dwellings, probably during winter occupations when they were trapped for their winter pelt.

19 of 24 fragments identified as arctic hare were found in Concentration 2 in association with the settlement episode represented by Meuse flint. At least two individuals are present here in close spatial association. There is no use of hare bone for artefacts.

79 fragments of bird bone were not all identified to species. Willow grouse or ptarmigan (Lagopus sp.) and raven (Corvus corax) were found predominantly in Concentration 2, and goose (probably more than one species) was found only in Concentrations 1 and 3.

The majority of the Magdalenian fish remains are vertebrae and all were identified as salmonid species, 14 as salmon or trout (Salmo sp.) and a single specimen as grayling (Thymallus thymallus). Certain bones of Salmo sp. are clearly of anadromous individuals up to 1 m in length.

There is recognisable spatial patterning of bone fragments in the case of several body parts, for example horse skulls and teeth. All teeth are clearly under-represented in the interior of the Concentration 1 dwelling structure but are much more abundant to the north and east, forming a border peripheral to the main area of paving. With other lines of evidence this suggests that a division or partition, interpreted as the wall of a structure, existed at this position. It seems that elements of the skull were cleared out from within the dwelling structure, although several fragments of skull in the structure reveal that heads of horse had been present within the dwelling at some point. This might have been during marrow fracturing of mandibles, or perhaps during the consumption of the meat of the heads. Three of four horse hyoid bones found at the very centre of the dwelling structure probably show the location of consuming the tongue. At Pincevent reindeer hyoid bones are frequently found around hearths which are interpreted as the place of consumption of the tongue. Although the exact reason for the regular spatial patterning of faunal remains is not always clear, it is probable that many components of the assemblage represent "single" episodes of butchering or processing. It seems likely that not only the interior of the dwelling, but also the exterior activity area was subject to cleaning up operations, and that most of the fauna may represent only the last phase of occupation before the site was finally abandoned.

Several indications for seasonality are present in the Magdalenian fauna. They include the tooth eruption patterns of horse and reindeer, and the presence of migrant birds (geese) and anadromous fish (Salmo).

The evidence for a winter occupation of Concentration 1 (and hence 3?) seems best founded. It can be supported by the presence in pits of horse foetal bone. Precisely aged horse milk teeth at the base of two deep pits suggest construction or renewal of the dwelling structure in late autumn or early winter.

The main distribution of salmonid fish is in Concentration 2, rather than in the concentrations with better evidence for winter activity. In historic times salmon (Salmo salar) entered the Rhine during winter to spawn and were caught in great numbers during May and June.

Although no piece of evidence alone is sufficient to prove an exclusive season of occupation, differences between Concentrations 1 / 3 and Concentration 2 might reflect autumn / winter and winter / spring occupation respectively.

Final Palaeolithic settlement
The spatial distribution of Final Palaeolithic faunal and lithic material lies between the Magdalenian Concentrations and straddles the centre of the main excavated area. Final Palaeolithic material is not present as a discrete "living floor", but is found throughout the depth of the Lößlehm deposit. Concentration of material in the fill of the fissures can also be observed for this assemblage, this time much higher in the stratigraphic sequence.

Lithic assemblage
The Final Palaeolithic lithic complex is quite different from the much larger Magdalenian assemblage.

Stone tools were manufactured from 13 varieties of lithic raw material, representing a total of perhaps 20 less than fist-sized nodules, producing an inventory of 2,875 (after Bolus 2,894) artefacts including small chips.

The availability of the material ranges from very local (Rhine gravels), to regional (quartzite outcrops in the Westerwald and Eifel, chalcedony close to Bonn), to long distance (> 100 km) procurement from Meuse gravels in the Lower Rhine Basin and, possibly, from sources in the Mainz Basin.

Extensive refitting sequences show that all stages of artefact manufacture took place within the excavated area and a zone of activity some 10 m x 8 m in diameter can be defined.

Within this larger area, each raw material has a more or less distinct centre of distribution, interpreted as knapping scatters. Flint is found more to the West of the site (but with refits to material in the eastern part of the site), while quartzite has an overall eastern distribution.

Fauna and subsistence
The animals associated with the Final Palaeolithic occupation include species of the temperate or boreal forest biotope, such as red deer, elk, beaver, chamois and a wild bovid, probably aurochs.

It is unclear if complete carcasses of these animals were originally present, but it was possible to identify almost all body parts of the most common species, red deer, which was represented by very young, prime and senile individuals. The minimum number of individuals is given only for the larger mammal species believed to have been hunted and used as a food source.

Fish remains assigned to the Final Palaeolithic occupation are mainly pike (Esox lucius) and cyprinid species, such as large specimens of chub (Leuciscus cephalus).

Structures
At least three concentrations of charcoal and burnt bone, quartz and lithic debitage are interpreted as the remains of hearths.

These were not associated with evident structures such as stone settings or reddened sediment and possibly represent only short episodes of use of fire . In some cases these can be more closely characterised, for example a fire in which willow wood was burned was in use during the butchery or consumption and discarding of one or two beaver carcasses. A second hearth shows the association of quartzite artefacts and bones of a very young ungulate.

Although no evident structures were recognised, application of the ring-and-sector method to lithic raw material and tool-type groups suggests a small structure interpreted as an enclosed tent some 4 m in diameter, at the West of the site.

Refitted bone fragments show that body parts of the same individuals of several species were scattered across the entire Final Palaeolithic occupation area. This complements the information of the spatial patterning of the lithic assemblage and underlines the unity of the excavated area.

There are some indications for occupation of the site during the warmer half of the year, but it is not possible to demonstrate that the site was occupied exclusively at this time.