Mesolithic

The Mesolithic (Greek: mesos "middle", lithos stone) or "Middle Stone Age"^[1] was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age. The term was introduced by John Lubbock in his work Pre-historic Times, published in 1865. The term was, however, not much used until V. Gordon Childe popularized it in his book The Dawn of Europe (1947).^[2]

A question of terminology: "Mesolithic" or "Epipaleolithic"?

The term "Mesolithic" is in competition with another term, "Epipaleolithic", which means the "final Upper Palaeolithic industries occurring at the end of the final glaciation which appear to merge technologically into the Mesolithic".^[3]

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.

• Some authors use the term "Epipaleolithic" for those cultures that are late developments of hunter-gatherer traditions but not in transition toward agriculture, reserving the term "Mesolithic" for those cultures, like the Natufian culture, that are transitional between hunter-gatherer and agricultural practices.

• Other authors use the term Mesolithic for a variety of Late Paleolithic cultures subsequent to the end of the last glacial period whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not.

A Spanish scholar, Alfonso Moure, says in this regard:

In the terminology of prehistoric archeology, the most widespread trend is to use the term "Epipaleolithic" for the industrial complexes of post-glacial hunter-gatherer groups. Conversely, those that are in course of transition toward artificial food production are assigned to the "Mesolithic".^[4]

Some authors prefer the opposite convention, using the term "Epipaleolithic" for cultures that are in transition toward agriculture and "Mesolithic" for those that are not. This is not really as confusing as it seems. The important thing is to take note of how each author uses the term.

In Europe

The Mesolithic began with our Holocene warm period around 11,660 BP and ended with the introduction of farming, the date of which varied in each geographical region. In some areas, such as the Near East, farming was already in use by the end of the Pleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short and poorly defined. In areas with limited glacial impact, the term "Epipaleolithic" is sometimes preferred. Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last glacial period ended have a much more apparent Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. 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 the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. Such conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 5000 BC in northern Europe.

As what Mithen terms the "Neolithic package" (including farming, herding, polished stone axes, timber longhouses and pottery) spread into Europe by routes that remain controversial among scholars, the Mesolithic way of life was marginalized and eventually disappeared. Mesolithic adaptations are cited as of relevance of the question of the transition to agriculture, including sedentism, population size and plant foods.^[5] In Europe, a "ceramic Mesolithic" can be distinguished between 5200-3850 cal BC that ranging from southern to northern Europe. Other labels are Subneolithicum or "Mesolithic, Last Hunters, First Farmers"(Price).^[6] This stage of Mesolithic culture can be found peripheral to the sedentary communities and Neolithic cultures (Linear Pottery -with Rössen culture and Lengyel culture being the most important derivate cultures- and Cardium Pottery) that by then had already passed their "aceramic Neolithic stage". By then most Mesolithic people employed a distinct type of pottery manufactured by methods not known to the Neolithic farmers. Though each area developed an individual style, yet some common features such as the point or knob base and the superimposed circular rolls of clay, suggests enduring contact and even "ethnic" relationships between the groups. The special shape of this pottery has been related to transport by logboat in wetland areas.^[7]. Jeunesse et al. (1991, fig.22) related similar point base pottery from Spain, southern Scandinavia and the Dnieper-Donets region in the Ukraine. Another area featuring neolithic point base pottery is Northern Africa. Denmark's Ertebølle culture is one example of a Mesolithic culture that made some pottery and engaged in significant trade with Neolithic groups directly to their south.^[8]

Mithen notes that Mesolithic cultures were a historical dead end, unlike the somewhat earlier cultures of the late Paleolithic period in West Asia, which were evolving steadily toward the Neolithic. At the same time, genetic studies strongly suggest that modern Europeans' ancestry, especially their matrilineal mitochondrial DNA, is descended directly from these Mesolithic peoples, who must have eventually adopted the Neolithic way of life that had come to them from West Asia.^[8]

In the Levant

There are two designated periods:

Mesolithic 1 (Kebara culture; 20–18,000 BC to 12,150 BC) followed the Aurignacian or Levantine Upper Paleolithic throughout the Levant. By the end of the Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries. Microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this culture period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts. This period is more properly called Epipaleolithic.

By 20,000 to 18,000 BC the climate and environment had changed, starting a period of transition. The Levant became more arid and the forest vegetation retreated, to be replaced by steppe. The cool and dry period ended at the beginning of Mesolithic 1. The hunter-gatherers of the Aurignacian would have had to modify their way of living and their pattern of settlement to adapt to the changing conditions.

The crystallization of these new patterns resulted in Mesolithic 1. New types of settlements and new stone industries developed.

The inhabitants of a small Mesolithic 1 site in the Levant left little more than their chipped stone tools behind. The industry was of small tools made of bladelets struck off single-platform cores. Besides bladelets, burins and end-scrapers were found. A few bone tools and some ground stone have also been found.

These so-called Mesolithic sites of Asia are far less numerous than those of the Neolithic and the archeological remains are very poor.

The second period, Mesolithic 2, is also called the Natufian culture. The change from Mesolithic 1 to Natufian culture can be dated more closely. The latest date from a Mesolithic 1 site in the Levant is 12,150 BC. The earliest date from a Natufian site is 11,140 BC.^{[citation needed]} This period is characterized by the early rise of agriculture that would later emerge into the Neolithic period.

Natufian culture is commonly split into two subperiods: Early Natufian (12,500–10,800 BC) (Christopher Delage gives a. 13000 - 11500 BP uncalibrated, equivalent to ca. 13,700 to 11,500 BC)^[9] and Late Natufian (10,800–9,500 BC). The Late Natufian most likely occurred in tandem with the Younger Dryas. Radiocarbon dating places the Natufian culture between 12,500 and 9500 BC, just before the end of the Pleistocene.^[10] This period is characterised by the beginning of agriculture.^[11]

The earliest known battle occurred during the Mesolithic period at a site in Egypt known as Cemetery 117.

Mesolithic sites

Some notable Mesolithic sites:

• Lepenski Vir, Serbia — 7000 BC
• Star Carr, England — 8700 BC
• Pulli settlement, Estonia — 9000 BC
• Franchthi cave, Greece — 20,000–3000 BC
• Cramond, Scotland — 8500 BC
• Mount Sandel, Ireland — 7010 BC
• Howick house, England — 7000 BC
• Newbury, England
• Swifterbant culture, The Netherlands
• Aveline's Hole, Somerset, England — 8,000 BC
• Ngwenya Mine, Swaziland - 42,000 BC

See also

• Jōmon period
• 10th millennium BC
• 9th millennium BC
• 8th millennium BC
• 7th millennium BC
• Holocene

Notes

1. ^ This translation can be ambiguous since Middle Stone Age is an older African prehistoric period.
2. ^ Linder, F., 1997. Social differentiering i mesolitiska jägar-samlarsamhällen. Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala universitet. Uppsala.
3. ^ Bahn, Paul, The Penguin Archaeology Guide, Penguin, London, pp. 141. ISBN 0-14-051448-1
4. ^ A. Moure El Origen del Hombre, 1999. ISBN 84-7679-127-5
5. ^ Europe's first farmers - T.Douglas Price, Cambridge University Press 2000, page 5
6. ^ De Roevers, p. 135
7. ^ De Roevers, p.162-163
8. ^ ^{a b} Mithen, 2004
9. ^ Delage, Christopher, The Last Hunter-gatherers in the Near East, British Archaeological Reports (1 Jun 2004), ISBN 1841713892
10. ^ Munro, Natalie D. (2003). "Small game, the Younger Dryas, and the transition to agriculture in the southern Levant" (PDF). Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 12: 47–71. http://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/munro/assets/Mitteilungen.pdf. 
11. ^ Bar-Yosef, Ofer (1998), "The Natufian Culture in the Levant, Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture" (PDF), Evolutionary Anthropology 6 (5): 159–177, doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::AID-EVAN4>3.0.CO;2-7, http://www.columbia.edu/itc/anthropology/v1007/baryo.pdf 

Further reading

• Dragoslav Srejovic Europe's First Monumental Sculpture: New Discoveries at Lepenski Vir. (1972) ISBN 0-500-390-096

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mesolithic

• Official Lepenski Vir Site in Serbian
• Mesolithic Miscellany — Newsletter and Information on the European Mesolithic
• 20th Century Mesolithic Sites in Mandla (Madhya Pradesh), India, discovered by Dr. Babul Roy: [1], [2], and [3]
• Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic (reconstructional palaeoethnology), Libor Balák at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research
• Gazetteer of Mesolithic sites in England and Wales with a gazetteer of Upper Palaeolithic sites in England and Wales. Wymer JJ and CJ Bonsall, 1977 Council for British Archaeology Research Report No 20