This book presents the results of a synthetic analysis of archaeological reports dealing with aspects of the early prehistory of the Netherlands. The reports were produced in the context of development-led commercial archaeology over the past 10 to 15 years.

The selected reports provided unbalanced coverage in terms of the representation of geographical regions, archaeological landscapes, and chronological and cultural attributions. This is due to differences in geological history, the nature of modern-day land use and spatial development, the nature of development-led fieldwork, the nature of political decision 7 — making, as well as archaeological conceptual constraints. Any synthetic analysis of data derived from these reports has to take these biasing factors into account, most particularly where it comes to interpretations with a geographical component or the reconstruction of long-term occupation histories. Notwithstanding these restrictions, the analysis allows for a critical evaluation of existing insights and ideas, as well as a (re)formulation of hypotheses for future research. Particular problems were encountered with regard to quantitative data, such as the mention of total numbers of (categories of) flint or pottery in the text, but no summary table; the use of vague quantitative terms (such as much, many, little), instead of exact numbers; or the provision of percentages without clear indication of sample or population size. Other types of problems concern issues of classification and subsequent presentation of data, the presentation of radiocarbon dates and the availability of primary data.