Meiendorf

an Upper Paleolithic site near Hamburg, in the northern part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Investigated by the German archaeologist A. Rust from 1932 to 1934, the site has been dated by the radiocarbon method to about 11,500 B.C. (the end of the Upper Paleolithic). Meiendorf constitutes the remains of the first settlement in northern Europe of Paleolithic hunters for reindeer, which had advanced from the south in the wake of the receding glaciers.

The items that were discovered at Meiendorf included numerous reindeer antlers; flint articles; tools made of antler with flint insets and used for cutting out straps; awls; needles; a harpoon; and a digging tool made of antler. The Hamburg archaeological culture of the end of the Upper Paleolithic, which was widespread in the northern part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands, has been named after Meiendorf.