Work

Deep Mechanical Coring Delivers New Pleistocene Archaeological Sites up to Eight Metres Below Surface in the Flemish Valley (Belgium)

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Our study reveals multiple signals of Palaeolithic occupation in the Flemish Valley, a large depression in coastal northwestern Europe with an extremely sparse Pleistocene archaeological record until now. We show that mechanical coring can reveal archaeological evidence of hominin presence from deep palaeolandscapes that are inaccessible for standard survey techniques. At nine out of 41 coring sites, we encountered a total number of 56 lithic artefacts at depths up to 8 m below the surface. We conclude that this unexpected success rate indicates a widespread archaeological record. We believe that this survey method has the potential to increase the number of Palaeolithic sites in northwestern Europe by an order of magnitude, leading to a very different image of Pleistocene hominin settlement in this vast European lowland.

Source: Heritage

DOI: 10.3390/heritage9040147

Authors: Philip Van Peer, Mark Willems, Mathieu Boudin, Ward Caes

Institutions: KU Leuven, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage

Language: English

Topic: Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,930

Funder: Onderzoeksraad, KU Leuven