Mesolithic Europe Research Articles

Plant Use in the Mesolithic and its Role in the Transition to Farming

The purpose of this paper is to review the current evidence for plant use in Mesolithic Europe and to summarize its implications. In order to do so, four sources of data are examined: macrobotanical remains, palynological data, artefactual evidence, and the human biological record.A prelimary survey of palaeobotanical evidence for plant use in the Mesolithic indicates that the evidence is far more extensive than expected hitherto and that accumulations of plant food, especially of nuts, point to their regular and extensive use. In those areas such as Britain, where a large number of fine-resolution palynological studies have been carried out, the incidence of clearance and burning phases seems to be too high to be explained by acts of nature alone. A good case can be made for deliberate forest clearance and the maintenance of a more open landscape by Late Mesolithic groups as part of a promotional strategy to increase the productivity of nut and fruit trees and shrubs, wetland plants, and possibly native grasses.Artefactual evidence points to a widespread distribution of soil-working tools (hoes and antler mattocks), especially in temperate Europe, and to a greater than expected presence of reaping and grinding equipment, lending conditional support for the existence of a specialized plant processing tool kit for digging, reaping, and plant processing.Palaeopathological evidence indicates the existence of a dietary pattern in the west Mediterranean making extensive use of starchy and carbohydrate foods which resulted in a high caries rate among the Mesolithic population of that area.In discussing the signiftcanse of these four lines of evidence, it is argued that, by the Late Mesolithic, the patterns of plant use support the notion of wild plant food husbandry instead of the incidental and opportunistic use of plants for food which has implicitly been accepted as a norm for the Mesolithic in Europe. Three geographical areas can be identified with their specific pattern of plant use: temperate Europe, Mediterranean Europe, and the south-eastern Balkans/Pontic Steppe. The patterns of plant use suggested in this paper emphasize the additive nature of the adoption of the agro-pastoral Neolithic farming practices in Europe.

Human population differentiation in the peri-Baltic Mesolithic: the odontometrics of Oleneostrovskii mogilnik (Karelia)

Odontometric data are reported for Oleneostrovskii mogilnik, a Mesolithic cemetery in the Karelian USSR. Containing the skeletal remains of 148 individuals and dated to 7500b.p., it is the largest and oldest of the known peri-Baltic Mesolithic cemeteries. The dental data from this site are compared to those from Skateholm, where dental dimensions closely approximate the mean tooth sizes for all late Mesolithic European material. Olenii ostrov possesses a significantly smaller dentition, despite antedating the Skateholm sample by 1500 years. Geographic, archaeological, linguistic and ancillary dental data are discussed which argue strongly for the presence in Mesolithic northern Europe of at least two quasi-isolated human mating networks. One of these, documented by Olenii ostrov, may also represent the earliest evidence for the establishment in the taiga zone of populations whose descendants are the modern Saami (=”Lapps”).

The Mesolithic of Northern Europe

The subject of this essay is 5,000 years of the early postglacial prehistory of northern Europe, from approximately 10,000 until 5,000 years ago. This part of the past is of interest in its own right, but also in a much broader context. Current evidence suggests that rather large and sedentary groups of hunter­ gatherers were present in northern Europe during the early Holocene. This information leads to two important messages for this paper: 1. The European Mesolithic was a period of dynamic change and innovation, rather than a time of cultural degeneration as it has often been portrayed; and 2. large and sedentary groups of hunter-gatherers are likely more typical of late Pleis­ tocene and early Holocene adaptations than the small and mobile ones de­ scribed for much of the ethnographic and archaeological record. This chapter begins with a discussion of the climatic, environmental, and chronological background of the northern European Mesolithic. I then focus on recent archaeological evidence before returning to the two points made above. For purposes of this essay, northern Europe includes all or parts of those countries that share the coasts of the Baltic Sea and Kattegat, including northern Poland and Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the northwestern comer of the Soviet Union, and the Baltic Republics (Figure 1). This is an immense area; it is further from one end of Norway to the other than

The Archaic Period in the south-central Andes

Although the Archaic Period of the south-central Andes is not well-known beyond Latin America, there is much of interest in it to archaeologists working with foraging populations. Like the North American Archaic and European Mesolithic, the Archaic in the region is characterized by ethnic differentiation, changes in the scale and frequency of residential mobility, resource intensification and specialization, and population growth. The origin and evolutionary trajectory of these trends are discussed within the context of the development of ecological complementarity, a strategy of land use that exploits the vertically stratified distribution of resources in the Andean environment.

Changes in Activities with the Shift to Agriculture in the Southeastern United States

Changes in Activities with the Shift to Agriculture in the Southeastern United States

Mesolithic northwest Europe: recent trends. Edited by P. Rowley-Conwy, M. Zvelebil and H. P. Blankholm. 170 pp., 58 figs. Sheffield: Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield, 1987.

Mesolithic northwest Europe: recent trends. Edited by P. Rowley-Conwy, M. Zvelebil and H. P. Blankholm. 170 pp., 58 figs. Sheffield: Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield, 1987.

Skeletal indicators of subsistence patterns and activity régime in the Mesolithic sample from Grotta dell’Uzzo (Trapani, Sicily): a case study

The skeletal sample from Grotta dell’Uzzo, Sicily (2 adult females and 5 adult males) was compared to a number of more representative population samples from Western Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. The majority of these were from Italian pre- and protohistoric sites. The research protocol analyzed skeletal indicators of labour activity and sexual division of labour (body size and proportions, sexual dimorphism, limb lateralization, bone robustness, the development of muscular attachments, accessory articular facets, signs of muscular hyperfunction). Sexual dimorphism and limb lateralization showed some regular patterns of possible general significance in all the samples examined here. A general pattern of gracilization and de-specialization of physical activity is observed in the Mesolithic as compared to the Upper Palaeolithic samples. The main features of the Mesolithic samples are: a reduction of body size and bone robustness, a lower degree of sexual dimorphism and limb bone asymmetry, a reduction of the mechanical stress on the lower limbs indicated by less pronounced muscular attachments and reduced talar flattening. This trend is reversed towards the Neolithic period. The main features of these variations are discussed in relation to economic and environmental changes. The Uzzo sample fits well into the general picture of the Western European Mesolithic, although showing some intermediate features between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic samples.

Long bone length and stature in the Western European Mesolithic. I. Methodological problems and solutions

Stature estimations have been made from a sample of long bones from Western European Mesolithic skeletons. A systematic difference is observed between the stature estimations from the distal parts of the extremities and those from the proximal parts. In this paper this methodological problem is discussed and a solution for this specific sample is proposed. In a second article, to be published at a later date, the proposed method is used to analyse the chronological and geographical variability of stature in the Western European Mesolithic.

The European Mesolithic

This brief review is intended to acquaint the reader with recent research and thought on the European Mesolithic. The period is characterized by hunter-gatherer adaptations between the close of the Pleistocene and the introduction of food production. A number of developments support an argument for a rapid intensification of human subsistence and settlement practices and organization, prior to the utilization of domesticated plants and animals.

Crown dimensions of deciduous teeth from pre-Columbian Peru.

The mean mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters are presented for the deciduous teeth from Pre-Columbian Peru. Generally, the deciduous teeth from Pre-Columbian Peru are larger in most dimensions than the deciduous teeth of modern populations of European descent and smaller than those of modern Australian aboriginals. Differences in crown dimensions between the Pre-Columbian Peruvian deciduous teeth and those from Prehistoric Inamgaon and Mesolithic Europe are inconsistent. However, the maxillary and mandibular second molars are larger in the Peruvian population while the incisors are smaller. Since comparative data for prehistoric deciduous teeth are rare, this paper adds valuable data to the growing literature on deciduous crown dimensions.

Mesolithic Europe: The Early Postglacial Settlement of Northern Europe . An Ecological Perspective. Paul Mellars, Ed. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 1979. xii, 412 pp., illus. $36. New Approaches in Archaeology.

Mesolithic Europe: <i>The Early Postglacial Settlement of Northern Europe</i> . An Ecological Perspective. Paul Mellars, Ed. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 1979. xii, 412 pp., illus. $36. New Approaches in Archaeology.

Britain Inside and Outside Mesolithic Europe

It is now some twenty years since Clark wrote his paper ‘A Microlithic Industry from the Cambridgeshire Fenland and other industries of Sauveterrian affinities from Britain’ (Clark 1955), and almost as long since he considered the cultural and chronological implications of flint industries with Trapezes—bitruncated blades—in North Western Europe (Clark 1958). Since then some 150 to 200 radiocarbon determinations have become available for the Mesolithic of this area—most particularly from Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain, with rather fewer from France. It is, quite deliberately, not the intention of this paper to attempt a detailed consideration, or presentation of all these new dates—not even for Britain where some sixty recent determinations and their associations will be the subject of a separate larger paper (Switsur and Jacobi, in preparation). More worrying, however, than this mass of new datings is a proliferation of new and mainly regional terms for stone industries, which, while believed to show sufficient diversity to demand such an extended nomenclature, are nevertheless obviously closely linked at the techno-complex level. It is then at this techno-complex level at which it is intended to work, and it is towards a simplified, or at least manageable, terminology that it is proposed to aim. The Key to the article will remain Britain in relation to the European mainland.

Azilian Burial from Los Azules I, Asturias, Spain

Previous articleNext article No AccessCurrent Anthropology NewsletterAzilian Burial from Los Azules I, Asturias, SpainPDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 17, Number 4Dec., 1976 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/201830 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 11Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1976 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:L. Drak, M.D. Garralda, A. Martínez-Villa, P. Arias, G. González-Fortes, A. Grandal-d'Anglade, B. García-Alonso, S. Merino, M.J. Moreno, J. Arrazola, A. Saiz, J.J. Alcolea, R. de Balbín Human remains in the Ardines karstic massif: Tito Bustillo and La Lloseta caves (Asturias, Spain), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 48 (Apr 2023): 103881.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103881Federica Fontana, Emanuela Cristiani, Stefano Bertola, François Briois, Antonio Guerreschi, Sara Ziggiotti, Peter F. Biehl A snapshot of Late Mesolithic life through death: An appraisal of the lithic and osseous grave goods from the Castelnovian burial of Mondeval de Sora (Dolomites, Italy), PLOS ONE 15, no.88 (Aug 2020): e0237573.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237573L. Drak, M.D. Garralda, P. Arias Los Canes Mesolithic burials: archaeothanatology, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 32 (Aug 2020): 102381.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102381Ana Cristina Araújo, Giampaolo Piga, David Gonçalves Fragmentary bodies or fragmentary perceptions? Mortuary practices of early mesolithic communities in South-western Iberia (c. 11,200–8500 cal BP), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 28 (Dec 2019): 102052.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.102052Cláudia Costa, Ana M.S. Bettencourt, Marta Senra The symbolic meaning of cattle and sheep/goat in the Bronze Age: Faunal inclusions in funerary contexts of South‐Western Iberia, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 63 (May 2019).https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2756Jörg Orschiedt The Late Upper Palaeolithic and earliest Mesolithic evidence of burials in Europe, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 373, no.17541754 (Jul 2018): 20170264.https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0264 References, (Jun 2011): 1–124.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444342499.refs Elena Garcia Guixé , Michael P. Richards , and M. Eulàlia Subirà Palaeodiets of Humans and Fauna at the Spanish Mesolithic Site of El Collado Garcia Guix et al., Current Anthropology 47, no.33 (Jul 2015): 549–557.https://doi.org/10.1086/504170T. Douglas Price The European Mesolithic, American Antiquity 48, no.44 (Jan 2017): 761–778.https://doi.org/10.2307/279775Karl W. Butzer Cave sediments, upper pleistocene stratigraphy and mousterian facies in Cantabrian Spain, Journal of Archaeological Science 8, no.22 (Jun 1981): 133–183.https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(81)90022-4Eugene L. Sterud, Lawrence Guy Straus, Katherine Abramovitz Recent Developments in Old World Archaeology, American Antiquity 45, no.44 (Jan 2017): 759–786.https://doi.org/10.2307/280146

The Indo-Europeans: Archeological Problems

appeared in Paris in 1961 a book by P. Bosch-Gimpera entitled Les IndoEuropeens, problames archeologiques, which was a French translation by R. Lantier from the Spanish, published in Mexico several years earlier. The book has 283 pages and ten maps. It covers not merely the origin problem, but pursues the Indo-European story up to the Roman times. It is a survey of much that had been said by linguists and archeologists in the course of about 60 years on the Indo-European mother tongue, language relationships, homelands, development and migrations of separate Indo-European groupsa survey of remarkable fluency. The book is not a precise account of archeological developments, but rather a summing up of many hypotheses. It certainly will stir archeologists and linguists and will give a new stimulus to reexamine the aging Indo-European homeland problem. In this lies its value. Bosch-Gimpera's general conclusions on the birth, homelands and early development of the Indo-European cultures are as follows: (1) The embryo of the Indo-Europeans lies in Mesolithic Europe; languages in the Mesolithic period must have formed a general substratum giving birth to the Indo-European, the Finno-Ugrian, the Rhaetian and Basque linguistic families. (2) The formation of several Indo-European groups occurred in the early Neolithic, reaching back to the 5th millennium. These are manifested by the birth of the linear culture and by another culture located between Poland and the Black Sea. (The author probably has in mind the North Pontic neolithic culture and assumes its westward spread over Poland, which is not established in archeology.) (3) In the third millennium the process of crystallization of the culture reached a stage of maturity. The author sees Danubian infiltration in the Balkans and in the Apennine Peninsula. With the or other movements are to be connected the appearance of early Greeks in Greece, and of Luvians and Hittites in Anatolia. (4) The Funnel-necked Beaker culture of the third millennium in northern Europe between Denmark and Poland must also have been Indo-European. (5) The Ponto-Caucasian group of the third and second millennia formed an early Indo-Iranian bloc, part of which spread to the Near East. Its northern branch, the people of the Pontic steppes, spread westward,

The Groove and Splinter Technique of working antler in Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Europe

The excavations carried out between 1949–51 at the Proto-Maglemosian site of Star Carr, near Seamer, Yorkshire, yielded abundant remains of the wild animals hunted during the Pre-boreal stage phase of the Post-glacial period in north-eastern England (J. G. D. Clark, 1949, 1950, 1954). Examination of this material has thrown much light on the methods used to make implements and weapons from the antlers and bones of animals killed primarily for food. The particular object of this paper is to draw attention to the technique used by the Star Carr people to obtain material for barbed points by cutting strips or splinters from stag antlers and to consider its significance in relation to some of the main developments of European prehistory during late Pleistocene and early Post-glacial times.