Editing History of the Netherlands (section)

== Prehistory (before 57 BC) ==
{{main|Prehistory of the Netherlands}}
 	
[[File:Mannetje van Willemstad.jpg|thumb|An oak figurine found in Willemstad, the Netherlands, dating from around 4500 BC. On display in the [[Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]] in Leiden. Height: {{Convert|12.5|cm|1|abbr=on}}.]]
During the last ice age, the Netherlands had a [[tundra]] climate with scarce vegetation, and the inhabitants survived as hunter-gatherers. The [[Swifterbant culture]], appearing around 5600 BC<ref name="Kooijmans1998">Louwe Kooijmans, L.P., "[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/1108/171_060.pdf?sequence=1 Trijntje van de Betuweroute, Jachtkampen uit de Steentijd te Hardinxveld-Giessendam]", 1998, ''Spiegel Historiael'' 33, pp. 423–428</ref> were [[hunter gatherers]] strongly linked to rivers and open water and related to the southern Scandinavian [[Ertebølle culture]].

[[File:BronzAgeElp.png|thumb|left|Location of the [[Elp culture|Elp]] and [[Hilversum culture]]s in the Bronze Age]]

Agriculture also arrived in areas near the Netherlands somewhere around 5000 BC with the [[Linear Pottery culture]], who were central European farmers with Mediterranean ancestry. Their farms were restricted to southern [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Limburg]] and only temporarily established. However, there is some evidence that the coastal Swifterband people took up pottery and animal husbandry in the rest of the country. Local groups made the switch to animal husbandry sometime between 4800 BC and 4500 BC.<ref name="Kooijmans1998quote">Leendert Louwe Kooijmans, "It is becoming increasingly clear that the agricultural transformation of prehistoric communities was a purely indigenous process that took place very gradually." Louwe Kooijmans, L.P., "[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/1108/171_060.pdf?sequence=1 Trijntje van de Betuweroute, Jachtkampen uit de Steentijd te Hardinxveld-Giessendam]", 1998, ''Spiegel Historiael'' 33, pp. 423–428</ref><ref>Volkskrant 24 August 2007, "[http://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/article455140.ece/Prehistorische_akker_gevonden_bij_Swifterbant Prehistoric agricultural field found in Swifterbant, 4300–4000 BC]"</ref><ref name="Raemakers">Raemakers, Daan. "[http://redes.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/root/2006/d.raemaekers/Raemaekers.pdf De spiegel van Swifterbant]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410084410/http://redes.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/root/2006/d.raemaekers/Raemaekers.pdf |date=10 April 2008}}, University of Groningen, 2006.</ref> By about 4000 BC the [[Funnelbeaker culture]] brought farming permanently into the region. This culture extended from Denmark through northern Germany into the northern Netherlands. The [[Vlaardingen culture]] continued the hunter-gatherer tradition in coastal areas.

By around 2950 BCE, there was a transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the [[Corded Ware]] culture which extended across much of northern and central Europe. The expansion of this culture is believed to have involved the movement of people from the direction of Ukraine, bringing [[Indo-European languages]] and [[Copper Age]] technology. The earliest bronze tools were in the [[Wageningen horde]], found in the grave of a [[Bronze Age]] metalworker.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Arnoldussen |first1=S. |last2=Huisman |first2=D.J. |last3=van Os |first3=B. |last4=Steffens |first4=B. |last5=Theunissen |first5=L. |last6=Amkreutz |first6=L. |date=December 2022 |title=A not so isolated fringe: Dutch later prehistoric (c. 2200 BCE-AD 0) bronze alloy networks from compositional analyses on metals and corrosion layers |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2352409X22003479 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |language=en |volume=46 |pages=103684 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103684|bibcode=2022JArSR..46j3684A |s2cid=253318347 |hdl=1887/3564156 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>  The [[Elp culture]] in the north<ref>According to "Het Archeologisch Basisregister" (ABR), version 1.0 November 1992, [http://www.racm.nl/content/documenten%5Cabr%20website.pdf], ''Elp Kümmerkeramik'' is dated BRONSMA (early MBA) to BRONSL (LBA) and this has been standardized by "De Rijksdienst voor Archeologie, Cultuurlandschap en Monumenten" (RACM) as being at the period starting at 1800 BC and ending at 800 BC.{{Failed verification|date=October 2011}} {{Dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{Cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> and the [[Hilversum culture]] in the south developed during the Bronze Age, with the latter having cultural ties with Britain.<ref>{{Cite web|last=nick_xylas|date=2021-03-01|title=Essential Wessex: Wessex Culture|url=https://theonlywayiswessex.net/2021/03/01/essential-wessex-wessex-culture/|access-date=2021-12-14|website=Wessex Society|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Germanic tribes (750BC-1AD).png|thumb|left|Distribution of the primary Germanic groups {{circa|1 AD}}]]

The [[Iron Age]] brought a measure of prosperity to the people living in the area of the present-day Netherlands with iron ore available throughout the country. [[Blacksmith|Smiths]] travelled from small settlement to settlement with [[bronze]] and iron, fabricating tools on demand, including axes, knives, pins, arrowheads and swords. The [[Vorstengraf (Oss)|Vorstengraf]] large burial mound contained a number of objects, including a curved iron sword. Leading up to the arrival of the Romans, the probably Germanic [[Harpstedt culture]] rose in the north<ref name="Mallory">Mallory, J.P., ''In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth'', London: Thames & Hudson, 1989, p. 87.</ref> possibly migrating from Scandinavia due to climatic deterioration which had separated<ref>''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th edition, 22:641–642</ref><ref name="Verhaal">de Vries, Jan W., Roland Willemyns and Peter Burger, ''Het verhaal van een taal'', Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2003, pp. 12, 21–27</ref> into a northern group that would later become [[Frisii|early Frisians]] and early [[Saxons]]<ref name="Verhaal" /> and a southern group that extended into the Rhine which eventually developed into the Salian Franks,<ref name="Verhaal" /> while further to the south were peoples influenced by the [[Hallstatt culture]] who eventually assimilated into the Celtic [[La Tène culture]] with some mixture between the two.<ref>Butler, J.J., ''Nederland in de bronstijd'', Bussum: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1969, p. {{Page needed|date=October 2011}}.</ref> This is consistent with [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]'s account of the Rhine forming the boundary between Celtic and Germanic tribes. Some scholars<ref>De Laet, Gysseling, [[Rolf Hachmann|Hachmann]], Kossack & Kuhn</ref> have speculated that a separate ethnic identity with its own language that was neither Germanic nor Celtic, formed a [[Nordwestblock]] stretching from the [[Somme (river)|Somme]] to the [[Weser]]<ref>Hachmann, Rolf, Georg Kossack and Hans Kuhn, ''Völker zwischen Germanen und Kelten'', 1986, pp. 183–212</ref><ref name="Lendering">Lendering, Jona, [https://www.livius.org/ga-gh/germania/inferior.htm "Germania Inferior"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607071937/https://www.livius.org/ga-gh/germania/inferior.htm |date=7 June 2020}}, Livius.org. Retrieved 6 October 2011.</ref> and survived until the Roman period before being absorbed by their Celtic and Germanic neighbours.