Abstract
In this article we take a fresh look at the population dynamics of the Polish Plain in the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, using Bayesian analysis and modelling of radiocarbon dates, and contrast the results with data from the North German Plain. We argue against simple adaptationalist models and instead see the cultural landscape as a complex patchwork of old forms and the emerging new traits of the early Mesolithic. We argue that the Mesolithic directly follows the Final Palaeolithic on the Polish Plain, without the chronological hiatus of 150–300 years that is often assumed for that region; while, by contrast, the two cultural patterns—Final Palaeolithic and microlith-based Mesolithic—overlapped significantly in time on the adjacent North German Plain.
Highlights
Notwithstanding many years of studies, the mechanism through which hunter-gatherer societies of northern and Central Europe adapted to environmental changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene has not yet been satisfactorily described
Most Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites dating from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition are found in sandy sediment, in the same level
The discussion on the end of Final Palaeolithic and the dawn of the early Mesolithic on the plains of Poland is still dominated by the migration theory, a hypothesis which in general terms holds that Swiderian people moved to northeastern Europe while a portion of Ahrensburgian hunters moved to Scandinavia
Summary
Notwithstanding many years of studies, the mechanism through which hunter-gatherer societies of northern and Central Europe adapted to environmental changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene has not yet been satisfactorily described. The transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene is a period of dramatic climate change accompanied by the profound economic and cultural transformation of hunter-gatherer societies worldwide. These changes are visible in the northern portions of America and Europe, where the significant warming of the climate brought about the replacement of tundra by woodlands with. In this paper we challenge this simplistic view and argue that the relationship between the pace of global climatic changes and transformations of society and culture was more complex than usually assumed in simple adaptationist theories
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