Mesolithic Europe Research Articles

The effects of climate and population on human land use patterns in Europe from 22ka to 9ka ago

Between 22ka and 9ka ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and during the transition to the Holocene, mobile hunter-gatherer populations, differentiated by their stone tool assemblages, periodically dispersed and contracted across Europe. It is well understood that climate played an important role in human distributions and population sizes during the post-LGM Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, but the question remains as to whether increasing population sizes drove early human dispersal. Here, using a spatiotemporal species distribution model to infer the fundamental and potential human climatic niche space of Late Upper Paleolithic, Final Paleolithic and Early Mesolithic Europe, and hypotheses derived from the Ideal Distribution Model, we test i) how changes in climate affected the size and extent of the projected potential human niche space, ii) for effects of changes in size of projected potential niche on regional human population sizes, iii) whether increasing human population sizes drove human dispersal into less climatically suitable habitats, and iv) whether populations associated with different high-order material culture groupings (macro-level technocomplexes) occupied different climatic spaces. We find that changes in climate correlate strongly with the size and extent of the projected potential human niche space, that increases in the projected human niche space correlate with increases in human population, that human population size is just beginning to become large enough to influence land use and dispersal patterns at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and that archaeological technocultural entities overlap in their fundamental climatic niche space. This overlap implies that changing tools forms cannot readily been seen as reflecting adaptations to changing climates.

An inverted perspective: Identification of stone tools used in the production of bone and antler artefacts in the North European Mesolithic - the case of the Dąbki site, Poland

The overwhelming majority of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites recorded on the North European Plains are composed exclusively of lithic assemblages. Numerous macro- and microscopic surface trace studies have been conducted with the aim of the identification of micro-wear traces visible on flint tools and the classification of these traces. The main trace categories are related to the main groups of materials processed on the site, like wood, hide, bone, antler or plants. However, it is problematic to take the next step forward and interpret what exactly the flint tool may have been used for.This difficulty can be partially overcome by research of peatbog sites located next to biogenic deposits filling river valleys and lake basins that preserve artefacts made of organic materials. One such site is Dąbki, in northern Poland, on the southern Baltic coastal zone. The paleogeographic context of the site appears to be an island within an ancient lake. Over twenty years of archeological research has led to the recovery of tens of thousands of animal bones, including a rich collection of bone and antler tools. This fortunate circumstance allows us to conduct a microwear study from a reverse perspective: instead of starting with a flint tool and finishing with some general conclusions about what materials were processed, we begun with the analysis of bone and antler tools, describing first the primary activities, techniques and morphology of tools necessary to make a final product. Only later we moved to use-wear analysis describing the traces of bone and antler working observable on flint tools. Together with morphological features distinguished in the course of technological analysis of antler and bone tools it was the foundation for initial selection of flint and stone materials later detailly analyzed microscopically. Basing on this approach, we distinguished specific sets of flint tools used for manufacturing certain categories of bone and antler tools.

Expedient and efficient: an Early Mesolithic composite implement from Krzyż Wielkopolski

The Northern European Mesolithic is well known for the manufacture of composite tools and weapons for specialised purposes. A composite implement recovered from the Early Holocene site of Krzyż Wielkopolski 7 in Poland, dated to the Preboreal/Boreal transition, raises questions about expediency versus efficiency in the fabrication of these artefacts. Here, the authors characterise its materials and production: a bone splinter mounted on a shaft of pine wood, secured with bast ligatures coated in birch bark tar. While the manufacture of the implement's individual components can be characterised as ‘expedient’, the finished implement is, however, complex, efficient and durable.

An Exposition on Colonialism and the European Mesolithic by Benjamin Elliott and Graeme Warren

An Exposition on Colonialism and the European Mesolithic by Benjamin Elliott and Graeme Warren

New radiocarbon dates for ornamented Mesolithic objects from north-west Poland: chronology and regional connections in the western Baltic region

During the northern European Mesolithic, new types of objects were ornamented with different geometric motifs. Many examples, however, are stray finds and their dating is poorly understood. The authors present new AMS radiocarbon dates for ornamented artefacts from Pomerania that contribute to an absolute chronology of Mesolithic art and allow for new consideration of connections between cultural groups in the western Baltic region. A baton, featuring an anthropomorphic figure, dates to the end of the Boreal period; three other objects date to the early Atlantic period, revealing a combination of regional and local innovations. The results demonstrate the value of absolute dating of stray finds for refining knowledge of wider cultural trends.

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211–9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40–50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child’s interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age.

Hunter-gatherer carbohydrate consumption: plant roots and rhizomes as staple foods in Mesolithic Europe

ABSTRACT Carbohydrate consumption in hunter-gatherer societies has been much debated, with dietary estimates from studies of modern hunter-gatherers used as a reference standard for modern human nutrition. However, relatively little is known about the role of carbohydrates in past hunter-gatherer diets in temperate Europe because farming has been the main mode of subsistence since early prehistory. Plant roots and rhizomes provide a major source of carbohydrates and archaeological evidence indicates that these resources were gathered, perhaps routinely for food by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe. This paper considers whether roots/rhizomes in Europe contained sufficient carbohydrates and energy to be utilised as staple foods using new food composition data, and considers the suitability of roots/rhizomes for intensive exploitation. The results reveal that the carbohydrate and energy content of wild roots/rhizomes can be higher than in cultivated potatoes, showing that they could have provided a major carbohydrate and energy source for hunter-gatherers in Europe.

New Evidence for Upland Occupation in the Mesolithic of Scotland

This paper discusses the evidence for periodic human activity in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland from the late 9th millennium to the early 4th millennium calbc. While contemporary paradigms for Mesolithic Europe acknowledge the significance of upland environments, the archaeological record for these areas is not yet as robust as that for the lowland zone. Results of excavation at Chest of Dee, along the headwaters of the River Dee, are set into a wider context with previously published excavations in the area. A variety of site types evidences a sophisticated relationship between people and a dynamic landscape through a period of changing climate. Archaeological benefits of the project include the ability to examine novel aspects of the archaeology leading to a more comprehensive understanding of Mesolithic lifeways. It also offers important lessons in site survival, archaeological investigation, and the management of the upland zone.

Plants as persons: perceptions of the natural world in the North European Mesolithic

ABSTRACT Amongst many hunter-gatherer communities, plants, animals and other aspects of the ‘natural’ environment, are bound up in, and gain significance and meaning from, specific cultural traditions. These traditions intricately bind the natural world into broader ontological understandings, which include concepts of animacy, the origins of the world, its structure and composition, and the behaviour of supernatural beings. Through these traditions, elements of the environment are imbued with an ontological significance that informs the way people perceive them, and how they interact with them through economic or ritual practice. There is a growing body of evidence that comparable traditions also structured the ways that hunter-gatherers interacted with their environment during the European Mesolithic. Much of the research has focused on the significance of animals, but this paper argues that plants were perceived in a similar way. Through a series of case studies from the North European Mesolithic, it shows how trees in particular were understood as powerful forces, playing active roles in people’s lives, and how interactions with them were mediated through prescribed forms of social practice.

D.YA. TELEHIN AND EPOCH OF CULTURAL DISTINGUISHING IN MESOLITHIC OF UKRAINE

At the beginning of the 20th century the West European Scholars O. Spengler and А. Toynbee introduced a new мultichoice vision of the World history. In the western archaeology of the interwar period it resulted in rejection of the global stages of the development of the primitive state and mass distinguishing of the numerous local cultures.
 Іn the course of time the stage-schematic concepts of the culture development have progressively shown a trend to a concept of the locality not only in Western but in Eastern Europe too. The 1970s is notable for a start of the cultures distinguishing boom in the Mesolithic history of the European part of the Soviet Union.
 Rapid process of distinguishing of the local cultures spread all over European continent having fundamentally changed cultural-historical map of the Mesolithic Europe. The 70s are marked by publishing of numerous monographs dedicated to cultural differentiation and periodization of some regions of the Central-East Europe. These problems have come to dominate at the international congresses and conferences. Congress in 1973 in Warsaw or conference in Leningrad in 1974 might serve as examples. As a result of new cultural-periodizational researches the Mesolithic map of Europe has become extremely variegated and subject to changes almost every year. The process of cultural distinguishing in the Mesolithic studies in Ukraine and Russia was especially stimulated by the achievements of the Polish and the Lithuanian scholars in 1960—70s.
 A head of Stone Age department of Archaeology Institute of NAS of Ukraine prof. D. Ya. Telehin take active part at distinguishing of the local Mesolithic cultures of Ukraine. The final transfer of D. Ya. Telehin to the positions of locality is demonstrated in his main work, generalizing monograph on the Ukraine Mesolithic in 1982. The researcher in this work has already distinguished near 20 original cultures and types of the monuments developed within two chronological both early and late stages of the Mesolithic in Ukraine. Developing periodization of the Mesolithic of the Ukraine D. Telehin stimulated regional researches directing the youth to study the Mesolithic of separate regions or cultural communities.

The pleistocene-holocene transition in Southwestern France: A focus on the laborian

During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, the European archaeological records can be divided into two broad entities – the Epigravettian in the northern Mediterranean Basin and the industries characterized by the return of a well-developed blade technology in northwestern Europe. This large Western European techno-complex comprises several cultural traditions defined essentially by various types of projectile points. One of these cultures, the Laborian, occupies an area at the crossing of northern traditions (Ahrensbourgian) and the Epigravettian techno-complex. Situated between the Azilian and the Mesolithic, the Laborian (ca 12.5–11 Ka cal. BP) is, paradoxically, poorly defined in southwestern France where it was initially defined. In fact, data for this culture is essentially available in the surrounding regions and especially in northern and western France. Revaluation of key Laborian lithic assemblages as well as the discovery of new sites today allow to draw a new picture of the various cultural traditions occupying this large area around 12 Ka cal. BP. Despite the scarcity of data on hunted fauna, we can observe the dominance of the exploitation of large game typical of open temperate landscapes. Osseous industry is also rare but we note the maintenance of bone barbed points in few sites. Artistic.conventions (engraved pebbles or bones) show several symbolic innovations, such as the development of a unique zoomorphic art. Lithic hunting weaponry essentially based around pointed elements, much like during the Azilian, allows to highlight two chronological phases along the Laborian culture: an older phase with straight backed points with truncated bases (Malaurie points) and bitruncated backed blades (“rectangles”) and a recent phase with pointed backed bladelets (Blanchères points) and bitruncated trapezoids. The production of large, standardized, straight blades with flat cross-sections during the Laborian reveals clear similarities with concepts recognized in Belloisian collections from Northern France even if blade lengths rarely reach the standards known on these sites. Finally, the technological study of domestic stone tools and hunting weaponry is an effective means for reconstructing larger scale evolution processes influencing these last Pleistocene societies and the persistence of their traditions into the European Mesolithic.

Stable oxygen isotope analysis of Phorcus lineatus (da Costa, 1778) as a proxy for foraging seasonality during the Mesolithic in northern Iberia

The Mesolithic period in the Cantabrian region, a coastal area located in northern Spain, is characterised by a marked increase in the human use of coastal resources in comparison with previous periods, resulting in the formation of so-called “shell middens”. Archaeological investigations have provided insights into the formation processes of these shell middens, as well as long-term changes in human exploitation of different marine resources and the relationship of foraging strategies to past climate changes. However, efforts to reconstruct the key environmental factor governing coastal subsistence and foraging resilience, the seasonal availability and use of different marine resources, have been limited in the region and, indeed, across coastal Mesolithic Europe more widely. Here, we use stable oxygen isotope analysis of Phorcus lineatus (da Costa, 1778), one of the most widespread molluscs in northern Iberian mesolithic coastal sites, in order to determine the season in which humans collected key coastal resources at the site of EL Mazo (Llanes, Asturias). We demonstrate that P. lineatus was exclusively collected in late autumn, winter and early spring. An experimental programme, in which modern P. lineatus specimens were collected in situ over the course of three years, established that relative meat yield varied within this species throughout the annual cycle, with higher relative meat yield during colder months. We argue that mollusc collection patterns were driven by a cost-benefit principle during the Mesolithic in the Cantabrian region and human populations had intimate knowledge of the seasonal developmental cycles of exploited marine taxa. This also highlights the importance of developing intra-annual records of resource use and climate change if coastal foraging is to be properly understood in prehistory.

Plant processing in the Late Mesolithic Poland: in search for function of the mysterious \u2018curved knives\u2019

Studies on the treatment and use of plants in the Mesolithic are difficult due to the small number of sources. However, they are important because it was one of the basic branches of the economy of the early Holocene community. This article presents the results of use-wear and experimental studies aimed at the interpretation of the function of the so-called curved knives. These tools are associated with the treatment of silica plants, but their actual function is not fully understood. The research was based on a collection of 66 products of this type from five sites in central Poland and is one of the first published research on tools of this kind from this part of Europe. As a result of microscopic analysis, eight types of curved knives were distinguished. In order to identify the plant species, the knives were used on an experimental programme based on the results of palynological studies carried out at site 6 in Ludowice, an economically specialised site. As a result of the traceological analyses, a number of correlations between artefacts and experimental tools have been identified that can provide an important step towards interpreting the actual function of the curved knives. At the same time, the large discrepancies in the traces resulting from the processing of different species of silica plants were documented and the probable use of many of their species in the European Mesolithic was suggested.

Microscopic examination of Mesolithic serpent-like sculptured stones from southern Ukraine

Abstract

Keep your head high: skulls on stakes and cranial trauma in Mesolithic Sweden

Abstract

Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation

Scandinavia was one of the last geographic areas in Europe to become habitable for humans after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, the routes and genetic composition of these postglacial migrants remain unclear. We sequenced the genomes, up to 57× coverage, of seven hunter-gatherers excavated across Scandinavia and dated from 9,500–6,000 years before present (BP). Surprisingly, among the Scandinavian Mesolithic individuals, the genetic data display an east–west genetic gradient that opposes the pattern seen in other parts of Mesolithic Europe. Our results suggest two different early postglacial migrations into Scandinavia: initially from the south, and later, from the northeast. The latter followed the ice-free Norwegian north Atlantic coast, along which novel and advanced pressure-blade stone-tool techniques may have spread. These two groups met and mixed in Scandinavia, creating a genetically diverse population, which shows patterns of genetic adaptation to high latitude environments. These potential adaptations include high frequencies of low pigmentation variants and a gene region associated with physical performance, which shows strong continuity into modern-day northern Europeans.

Paleogenomic Evidence for Multi-generational Mixing between Neolithic Farmers and Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers in the Lower Danube Basin

SummaryThe transition from hunting and gathering to farming involved profound cultural and technological changes. In Western and Central Europe, these changes occurred rapidly and synchronously after the arrival of early farmers of Anatolian origin [1, 2, 3], who largely replaced the local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers [1, 4, 5, 6]. Further east, in the Baltic region, the transition was gradual, with little or no genetic input from incoming farmers [7]. Here we use ancient DNA to investigate the relationship between hunter-gatherers and farmers in the Lower Danube basin, a geographically intermediate area that is characterized by a rapid Neolithic transition but also by the presence of archaeological evidence that points to cultural exchange, and thus possible admixture, between hunter-gatherers and farmers. We recovered four human paleogenomes (1.1× to 4.1× coverage) from Romania spanning a time transect between 8.8 thousand years ago (kya) and 5.4 kya and supplemented them with two Mesolithic genomes (1.7× and 5.3×) from Spain to provide further context on the genetic background of Mesolithic Europe. Our results show major Western hunter-gatherer (WHG) ancestry in a Romanian Eneolithic sample with a minor, but sizeable, contribution from Anatolian farmers, suggesting multiple admixture events between hunter-gatherers and farmers. Dietary stable-isotope analysis of this sample suggests a mixed terrestrial/aquatic diet. Our results provide support for complex interactions among hunter-gatherers and farmers in the Danube basin, demonstrating that in some regions, demic and cultural diffusion were not mutually exclusive, but merely the ends of a continuum for the process of Neolithization.

Diversité des territoires d’origine des parures en coquillage mésolithiques de la grotte Rochefort (Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve, Mayenne)

Marine shells were constantly used as ornaments by the Mesolithic populations of Europe. The resumption of excavations in Grotte Rochefort (Saint-Pierre-sur-Erve, Mayenne, France) helps complete the existing corpus. The scientific interest of these ornaments is also underlined by the distance of the site from the sea, over 150 km at the time of its occupation. A series of 39 shells was discovered in Grotte Rochefort alongside other ornaments made from animal and human teeth, animal bone remains and lithic artefacts. The stratigraphic data and the geo-archaeological context of the cave allow us to attribute these shell ornaments to the Mesolithic. A basic description of these ornaments is proposed : specific determination, taphonomic analysis and description of their perforation and use-wear stigmata. Our objectives include explaining the reasons for the presence of these shells in the occupation layers of Grotte Rochefort, discovering if these shells were perforated in the cave itself, finding if they were worn, defining acquisition methods of the raw material, and situating these shell ornaments in the context of the European Mesolithic. Their specific determination (Dentalium sp., Ampullina sp ., Euspira nitida, Littorina littorea, Littorina obtusata, Neritidae (Neritinae) ind., Nucella lapillus, Trivia sp ., Cerithium gr. vulgatum) reveals an important diversity of the potential origins of these artefacts and their acquisition method. Some were collected after being washed ashore on beaches along the Mesolithic Atlantic or Mediterranean coasts, others were found in several fossil deposits. The dichotomy with shells consumed during the Mesolithic underlines a specific mode of acquisition dedicated to this use. In fact, most of the species used as ornaments in Grotte Rochefort were not consumed during the Mesolithic (e. g. Dentalium sp., Littorina obtusata or Trivia sp.), and several indications plead in favour of their collection once dead and already deprived of the animal’s flesh (breaks in prominent parts of the shell such as the siphonal canal or the apex, followed by their regular and uniform polishing, the regular polish of the whole surface, erasing in a uniform manner the ornamentation of the shell). This dichotomy underlines the importance attributed to them by these Mesolithic populations within the symbolic sphere. The fact that these ornaments were merely perforated is probably not innocuous ; thus, they convey the mystery of the oceans or at least the image of a major environment in the lifestyle of these hunter-gatherers totally dependent on wild resources. It was not possible to confirm shaping of these ornaments within Grotte Rochefort. These shells seem to have been extensively worn before being lost on the Mesolithic occupation floor of the cave, as revealed by the break of the shell bridge between the aperture of the shell and the original perforation. The ornaments found in Grotte Rochefort doubtless represent only a tiny proportion of the shell ornaments worn by the people who frequented this cave. Only the smallest components of the Mesolithic shell ornaments seem to appear there. Analysis of the shell ornaments from Grotte Rochefort shows strong similarities with those of the European Mesolithic : the shell ornaments discovered are small in size, the main species determined are Dentalium sp ., Littorina obtusa, their shaping (reducing of tusk-shells, perforation localized on the last whorl of gastropods, perforation moved from the outer lip to offer resistance to the tensions linked to the tie, two perforations of the dorsal area of Trivia), and the way they were worn (deformation of the shape of the perforation associated with the polish around the perforation, levelling of the inner lip). Grotte Rochefort thus represents an additional milestone bearing witness to important exchange networks with multiple influences during the Mesolithic.

More than Skin Deep: Reconsidering Isolated Remains of ‘Fur-Bearing Species’ in the British and European Mesolithic

Traditional accounts of animals in Mesolithic Northwest Europe have ultimately been economic in character, with a particular focus of the larger ungulate species that formed the dietary mainstay. Smaller mammalian species, regularly grouped as ‘fur-bearing’ species, also play a role in such accounts, as the source of important non-nutritional materials, namely their fur. However, how has placing these species in this broad category impacted archaeology's interpretation of their remains in the Mesolithic? This paper argues economic categorization of these species has led to an automatic interpretation of their remains, which may overlook evidence for other uses and treatments. This research proposes that the remains of ‘fur-bearing’ species were not just waste products from fur extraction, but were also wrapped up in complex and meaningful human-nonhuman relationships, which impacted how these remains were treated, and ultimately shaped the archaeological record.

Состав мезолитического и неолитического населения лесостепной полосы Восточно-Европейской равнины по одонтологическим материалам

Dental data are used to test two hypotheses as to whether the “eastern” traits of the Mesolithic and Neolithic populations of the Russian Plain are due to Mongoloid admixture or to evolutionary conservatism, specifi cally to the retention of features peculiar to the Upper Paleolithic groups. Frequencies of nonmetric traits, both those used in standard population studies and so-called markers of generalized conservatism, were studied in dental samples from Yuzhny Oleniy Ostrov and Vasilyevka-3 (Mesolithic), Fomino (Ryazan variant of Pit-Comb Ware culture), Karavaikha (Kargopol variant of the same culture), Vovnigi-1 (Kiev-Cherkassy variant of the Neolithic Dnieper-Donets culture), and Vovnigi-2 (Azov-Dnieper variant of the same culture). Published dental data on Zvejnieki (Mesolithic Kunda cuture), Yasinovatka and Nikolskoye (Dnieper-Donets culture), Sakhtysh-2a (Lyalovo variant of the Neolithic Pit-Comb Ware culture), and Upper Paleolithic samples from Europe were used for comparison. Both A.A. Zubov’s standard protocol and C.G. Turner’s ASUDAS were employed. The results suggest that multiple evolutionary processes were involved. Northeastern European Mesolithic dentitions indicate both Mongoloid admixture and continuity with Upper Paleolithic groups. Mesolithic series from Ukraine are more specialized in the Caucasoid direction while also showing certain Upper Paleolithic traits. In the Neolithic, the dental differences between northern and southern Caucasoids decrease, and there is a gradual reduction of both Mongoloid and Upper Paleolithic characteristics. Nonetheless, people of the Pit-Comb Ware culture, like those of Dnieper-Donets culture display certain Upper Paleolithic traits, which are the most evident in Vovnigi-2.