Annelou van Gijn, born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1956. Ph.D. from Leiden University. Associate Professor in Archaeology at Leiden University.
Fellow (1 September 2006 – 30 June 2007)
THE USE OF FLINT IN THE LATER PREHISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS: EXAMINING CULTURAL CHOICES THROUGH TIME
The main aim of my stay at NIAS was to write a book on “The materiality of flint”, provisionally subtitled: “its social significance for Neolithic and Bronze Age communities”. This book integrates past functional and morphological analyses of thousands of flint tools, documenting the life history of objects from settlements, graves, hoards and votive depositions. The aim was to understand the changing roles flint played in society during the last millennia of its use, from the introduction of agriculture around 5400 BC to the times that it almost totally lost its significance with the spread of iron around 800 BC. I was able to finish an almost complete first draft of the book, with only occasional gaps to be filled in. I thus had a very fruitful and stimulating time at NIAS. Not only did I write most of my book, I also finished several papers, prepared a NWO proposal, organized a symposium and attended more conferences than I am ever able to attend in a normal (teaching) year. I also spent a lot of time reading, made possible by the excellent library facilities here. The intellectual climate at NIAS and the research discipline that permeated this institute have been of great significance to me.