The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broaderhunter-gatherer way of life, and the development of more sophisticated and typically smaller lithic tools and weapons than the heavy-chipped equivalents typical of the Paleolithic. Depending on the region, some use ofpottery andtextiles may be found in sites allocated to the Mesolithic, but generally indications of agriculture are taken as markingtransition into the Neolithic. The more permanent settlements tend to be close to the sea or inland waters offering a good supply of food. Mesolithic societies are not seen as very complex, and burials are fairly simple; in contrast, grandioseburial mounds are a mark of the Neolithic.
The terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" were introduced byJohn Lubbock in his workPre-historic Times in 1865. The additional "Mesolithic" category was added as an intermediate category by Hodder Westropp in 1866. Westropp's suggestion was immediately controversial. A British school led byJohn Evans denied any need for an intermediate: the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led byGabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later.
Edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his naming of theAzilian Culture.Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the "Epipaleolithic", suggesting a final phase of the Paleolithic rather than an intermediate age in its own right inserted between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.
By the time ofVere Gordon Childe's work,The Dawn of Europe (1947), which affirms the Mesolithic, sufficient data had been collected to determine that a transitional period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic was indeed a useful concept.[2] However, the terms "Mesolithic" and "Epipalaeolithic" remain in competition, with varying conventions of usage. In the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term "Mesolithic" is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term "Epipaleolithic" may be preferred by most authors, or there may be divergences between authors over which term to use or what meaning to assign to each. In the New World, neither term is used (except provisionally in the Arctic).
"Epipaleolithic" is sometimes also used alongside "Mesolithic" for the final end of the Upper Paleolithic immediately followed by the Mesolithic.[3] As "Mesolithic" suggests an intermediate period, followed by the Neolithic, some authors prefer the term "Epipaleolithic" forhunter-gatherer cultures who are not succeeded by agricultural traditions, reserving "Mesolithic" for cultures who are clearly succeeded by the Neolithic Revolution, such as theNatufian culture. Other authors use "Mesolithic" as a generic term for hunter-gatherer cultures after the Last Glacial Maximum, whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not. In addition, terminology appears to differ between archaeological sub-disciplines, with "Mesolithic" being widely used in European archaeology, while "Epipalaeolithic" is more common in Near Eastern archaeology.
TheShigir Idol, from the east of theUral mountains.Two skeletons of women aged between 25 and 35 years, dated between 6740 and 5680 BP, both of whom died a violent death. Found atTéviec, France in 1938.
TheBalkan Mesolithic begins around 15,000 years ago. In Western Europe, the Early Mesolithic, orAzilian, begins about 14,000 years ago, in theFranco-Cantabrian region of northernSpain andSouthern France. In other parts of Europe, the Mesolithic begins by 11,500 years ago (the beginning of theHolocene), and it ends with theintroduction of farming, depending on the region betweenc. 8,500 and 5,500 years ago. Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as thelast glacial period ended have a much more apparent Mesolithic era, lasting millennia.[4] In northern Europe, for example, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands created by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviors that are preserved in the material record, such as theMaglemosian andAzilian cultures. Such conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until some 5,500 BP in northern Europe.
The type of stone toolkit remains one of the most diagnostic features: the Mesolithic used amicrolithic technology – composite devices manufactured with Mode V chippedstone tools (microliths), while the Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV. In some areas, however, such as Ireland, parts of Portugal, the Isle of Man and the Tyrrhenian Islands, a macrolithic technology was used in the Mesolithic.[5] In the Neolithic, the microlithic technology was replaced by a macrolithic technology, with an increased use of polished stone tools such as stone axes.
There is some evidence for the beginning of construction at sites with a ritual orastronomical significance, includingStonehenge, with a short row of largepost holes aligned east–west, and a possible "lunar calendar" atWarren Field in Scotland, with pits of post holes of varying sizes, thought to reflect thelunar phases. Both are dated to beforec. 9,000 BP (the 8th millennium BC).[6]
An ancient chewed gum made from the pitch of birch bark revealed that a woman enjoyed a meal of hazelnuts and duck about 5,700 years ago in southern Denmark.[7][8] Mesolithic people influenced Europe's forests by bringing favored plants like hazel with them.[9]
As the "Neolithic package" (including farming, herding, polished stone axes,timber longhouses and pottery) spread into Europe, the Mesolithic way of life was marginalized and eventually disappeared. Mesolithic adaptations such as sedentism, population size and use of plant foods are cited as evidence of the transition to agriculture.[10] Other Mesolithic communities rejected the Neolithic package likely as a result of ideological reluctance, different worldviews and an active rejection of the sedentary-farming lifestyle.[11] In one sample from theBlätterhöhle inHagen, it seems that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies in the area;[12] such societies may be called "Subneolithic". For hunter-gatherer communities, long-term close contact and integration in existing farming communities facilitated the adoption of a farming lifestyle. The integration of these hunter-gatherers in farming communities was made possible by their socially open character towards new members.[11] In north-Eastern Europe, the hunting and fishing lifestyle continued into theMedieval period in regions less suited to agriculture, and inScandinavia no Mesolithic period may be accepted, with the locally preferred "Older Stone Age" moving into the "Younger Stone Age".[13]
Art
Compared to the preceding Upper Paleolithic and the following Neolithic, there is rather less surviving art from the Mesolithic. TheRock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, which probably spreads across from the Upper Paleolithic, is a widespread phenomenon, much less well known than the cave-paintings of the Upper Paleolithic, with which it makes an interesting contrast. The sites are now mostly cliff faces in the open air, and the subjects are now mostly human rather than animal, with large groups of small figures; there are 45 figures atRoca dels Moros. Clothing is shown, and scenes of dancing, fighting, hunting and food-gathering. The figures are much smaller than the animals of Paleolithic art, and depicted much more schematically, though often in energetic poses.[14] A few small engravedpendants with suspension holes and simple engraved designs are known, some from northern Europe inamber, and one fromStar Carr in Britain inshale.[15] TheElk's Head of Huittinen is a rare Mesolithic animal carving insoapstone fromFinland.
The rock art in theUrals appears to show similar changes after the Paleolithic, and the woodenShigir Idol is a rare survival of what may well have been a very common material for sculpture. It is a plank oflarch carved with geometric motifs, but topped with a human head. Now in fragments, it would have stood over five metres tall.[16] TheAin Sakhri figurine from Palestine is a Natufian carving incalcite.
A total of 33antler frontlets have been discovered at Star Carr.[17] These are red deer skulls modified to be worn by humans. Modified frontlets have also been discovered at Bedburg-Königshoven, Hohen Viecheln, Plau, and Berlin-Biesdorf.[18]
Weaving techniques were deployed to create shoes and baskets, the latter being of fine construction and decorated with dyes. Examples have been found inCueva de los Murciélagos in Southern Spain that in 2023 were dated to 9,500 years ago.[20][21]
Pottery with re-construction repairs found inXianrendong cave, dating to 20,000–10,000 years ago.[27]
A 2012 publication in the journalScience announced that the earliest pottery yet known anywhere in the world was found in Xianrendong cave in China, dating by radiocarbon to between 20,000 and 19,000 years before present, at the end of theLast Glacial Period.[28][29] The carbon-14 datation was established by carefully dating surrounding sediments.[29][30] Many of the pottery fragments had scorch marks, suggesting that the pottery was used for cooking.[30] These early pottery containers were made well before theinvention of agriculture (dated to 10,000 to 8,000 BC), by mobile foragers who hunted and gathered their food during the Late Glacial Maximum.[30]
Comb Ceramic culture existed from around 4200 BC to around 2000 BC. The bearers of the culture are thought to have still mostly followed the Mesolithichunter-gatherer lifestyle.
While Paleolithic and Neolithic have been found useful terms and concepts in thearchaeology of China, and can be mostly regarded as happily naturalized, Mesolithic was introduced later, mostly after 1945, and does not appear to be a necessary or useful term in the context of China. Chinese sites that have been regarded as Mesolithic are better considered as Early Neolithic.[34]
In thearchaeology of India, the Mesolithic, dated roughly between 12,000 and 8,000 BP, remains a concept in use.[35]
TheSaharan rock paintings found atTassili n'Ajjer in centralSahara, and at other locations depict vivid scenes of everyday life in centralNorth Africa. Some of these paintings were executed by a hunting people who lived in asavanna region teeming with a water-dependent species like thehippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert area.[36]
^Linder, F. (1997).Social differentiering i mesolitiska jägar-samlarsamhällen. Uppsala.: Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala universitet.
^Nicky Milner; Chantal Conneller; Barry Taylor (2018).STAR CARR Volume 1: a persistent place. White Rose University Press.
^Martin Street; Markus Wil (2015). "Technological aspects of two Mesolithic red deer 'antler frontlets' from the German Rhineland". In N. Ashton; C. Harris (eds.).No Stone Unturned. Papers in Honour of Roger Jacobi. pp. 209–219.
^Morgan, C.; Scholma-Mason, N. (2017). "Animated GIFs as Expressive Visual Narratives and Expository Devices in Archaeology".Internet Archaeology (44).doi:10.11141/ia.44.11.
^Hunter-Gatherers Were Making Baskets 9,500 Years Ago, Researchers Say by Rachel Chaundler, The New York Times 30 September 2023 Science, updated 3 October 2023
^Anthony, D.W. (2007). "Pontic-Caspian Mesolithic and Early Neolithic societies at the time of the Black Sea Flood: a small audience and small effects". In Yanko-Hombach, V.; Gilbert, A.A.; Panin, N.; Dolukhanov, P.M. (eds.).The Black Sea Flood Question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Springer. pp. 245–370.ISBN978-94-024-0465-4.
^Srejovic, Dragoslav (1972).Europe's First Monumental Sculpture: New Discoveries at Lepenski Vir. Thames and Hudson.ISBN978-0-500-39009-2.
^Central Asia does not enter the Neolithic, but transitions from the Mesolithic to theChalcolithic in the fourth millennium BC (metmuseum.org).The early onset of the Mesolithic in Central Asia and its importance for later European mesolithic cultures was understood only after 2015, with the radiocarbon dating of the Shigor idol to 11,500 years old.N.E. Zaretskaya et al., "Radiocarbon chronology of the Shigir and Gorbunovo archaeological bog sites, Middle Urals, Russia",Proceedings of the 6th International Radiocarbon and Archaeology Symposium, (E Boaretto and N R Rebollo Franco eds.),RADIOCARBON Vol 54, No. 3–4, 2012, 783–94.
^Zhang, Chi,The Mesolithic and the Neolithic in China (PDF), 1999,Documenta Praehistorica. Poročilo o raziskovanju paleolitika, neolotika in eneolitika v Sloveniji. Neolitske študije = Neolithic studies, [Zv.] 26 (1999), pp. 1–13 dLib
^Central Asia does not enter the Neolithic, but transitions from the Mesolithic to theChalcolithic in the fourth millennium BC (metmuseum.org).The early onset of the Mesolithic in Central Asia and its importance for later European mesolithic cultures was understood only after 2015, with the radiocarbon dating of the Shigor idol to 11,500 years old.N.E. Zaretskaya et al., "Radiocarbon chronology of the Shigir and Gorbunovo archaeological bog sites, Middle Urals, Russia",Proceedings of the 6th International Radiocarbon and Archaeology Symposium, (E Boaretto and N R Rebollo Franco eds.),RADIOCARBON Vol 54, No. 3–4, 2012, 783–794.
^The term "Mesolithic" is not a useful term for the periodization of the South Asian Stone Age, as certaintribes in the interior of the Indian subcontinent retained a Mesolithic culture into the modern period, and there is no consistent usage of the term. The range 12,000–4,000 BP is based on the combination of the ranges given by Agrawal et al. (1978) and by Sen (1999), and overlaps with the early Neolithic atMehrgarh. D.P. Agrawal et al., "Chronology of Indian prehistory from the Mesolithic period to the Iron Age",Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 7, Issue 1, January 1978, 37–44: "A total time bracket of c. 6,000–2,000 B.C. will cover the dated Mesolithic sites, e.g. Langhnaj, Bagor, Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, Lekhahia, etc." (p. 38). S.N. Sen,Ancient Indian History and Civilization, 1999: "The Mesolithic period roughly ranges between 10,000 and 6,000 B.C." (p. 23).
![Animated image showing the sequence of engravings on a pendant excavated from the Mesolithic archaeological site of Star Carr in 2015[19]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aStar_Carr_Engraved_Pendant.gif)
