Blind dates: Exploring uncertainty in the radiocarbon evidence on the emergence of animal husbandry in the Dutch wetlands

•This is the first in-depth chronological study of the legacy datasets from the context of early animal husbandry in the Netherlands.•We scrutinise the established chronological narrative on the commencement of domestication in the Netherlands by means of Bayesian modelling and chronometric hygiene, methods novel in Dutch archaeology.•We demonstrate that the chronostratigraphy of Hardinxveld-Giessendam de Bruin, Mesolithic site featuring the oldest remains of domesticated species and crucial to the debate on the start of Neolithisation in the Netherlands, is inconclusive and requires further research. Current results suggest that the context of the oldest domesticated animals is likely several centuries younger than previously thought.