Mesolithic

Just at the end of the Upper Paleolithic a Mesolithic cultural period emerged and with it several new innovations made hunting even more energy... 

Clutton-Brock, J. and Noe-Nygaard, N. 1990 New osteological and C-isotope evidence on Mesolithic dogs Comparison to hunters and fishers at Star Carr, Seamer Carr and Kongemose. of Archaeological Science 17 643-653. 

Lubell, D., Jackes, M., Schwarcz, H., Knyf, M. and Meiklejohn, C. 1994 The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Portugal isotopic and dental evidence oiAiA.Journal of Archaeological Science 21 201-216. 

Noe-Nygaard, N. 1988 8 C values of dog bones reveal the nature of changes in man s food resources at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Isotope Geoscience 73 87-96. 

FIGURE 24 Obsidian knife. A knife made of obsidian in Mesolithic times and found in Elmenteita, Kenya, which was heated in the distant past. The time of heating (3700 + 900 years ago) was determined by the fission tracks dating method (see Fig. 25). 

Fleischer, R. L., P B. Price, and R. M. Walker (1965b), Fission track dating of a mesolithic knife, Nature 205, 1138-1140. 

Mesolithic 5,000,000 First farming in the Fertile Crescent Domestication of sheep, goats and cattle Beginnings of soil erosion in the Middle East which spread with farming to North Africa and Europe... 

Pickard, C. and Bonsall, C. (2004). Deep-sea fishing in the European Mesolithic fact or fantasy European Journal of Archaeology 7 273-290. 

Research into samples of Mesolithic date, particularly those in Scandinavia, reveals the same preponderance of birch bark tar. Tar may not have only been used in hafting (Aveling and Heron, 1998) as some isolated lumps display clear evidence of human tooth impressions [see Aveling and Heron (1999), for consideration of the reasons]. Nine lumps of tar with human tooth impressions have been found at the Neolithic lake dwelling at Hornstaad-Hornle I, in southern Germany (Rottlander, 1981 Schlichtherle and Wahlster, 1986 92) and others are known from Mesolithic bog sites in Scandinavia (Larsson, 1983 75-76). It is plausible that birch bark tar served as a mild stimulant. A more prosaic interpretation is that chewing the tar rendered it more ductile for use. 

Aveling, E.M. and Heron, C. (1998). The chemistry of birch bark tars at Mesolithic Star Carr. Ancient Biomolecules 2 69-80. 

Figure 10.4 Carbon isotope ratios in bone collagen plotted against radiocarbon ages for British Mesolithic and Neolithic humans. (Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd Richards et al., 2003. Copyright 2003.)...

Milner et al. (2004) cite evidence for continuity of occupation from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic at coastal sites in Denmark, pointing out the... 

Eriksson, G. and Liden, K. (2002). Mammalian stable isotope ecology in a Mesolithic lagoon at Skateholm. Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science 13 5-10. 

Liden, K., Eriksson, G., Nordqvist, B., Gotherstrom, A. and Bendixen, E. (2004). The wet and the wild followed by the dry and the tame - or did they occur at the same time Diet in Mesolithic-Neolithic southern Sweden. Antiquity 78 23-33. 

Milner, N., Craig, O.E., Bailey, G.N., Pedersen, K. and Andersen, S.H. (2004). Something fishy in the Neolithic A re-evaluation of stable isotope analysis of Mesolithic and Neolithic coastal populations. Antiquity 78 9-22. 

Price, T.D. (1991). The Mesolithic of northern Europe. Annual Reviews of Anthropology 20 211-233. 

Richards, M.P. and Hedges, R.E.M. (1999). Stable isotope evidence for similarities in the types of marine food used by late Mesolithic humans on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 26 717-722. 

Schulting, R.J. and Richards, M.P. (2002). The wet, the wild and the domesticated the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland. European Journal of Archaeology 5 147-189. 

The debate intensified recently with the publication of Richards et al. (2003), which claimed that, in Britain at least, on the evidence of bone collagen < 13, the transition from the Mesolithic to Neolithic (c. 4000 cal. bc) was a sharp one, with a complete abandonment of marine resources in the Neolithic, even by coastal communities (Fig. 8.10). This was further interpreted as being the result of a very rapid adoption of the Neolithic lifestyle of plant and animal domestication, contrary to earlier views which argued for a gradual shift. Perhaps predictably, this has provoked a sharp debate focusing on both the interpretation of isotopic evidence (Milner et al. 2003) and on evidence to the contrary for other parts of Europe (Liden et al. 2003). Milner et al. (2003) summarize the assumptions upon which the... 

Figure 8.10 Carbon isotope ratios in bone collagen plotted against radiocarbon ages for 183 British Mesolithic and Neolithic humans from coastal (within 10 km of modern coastline squares) and inland sites (crosses). The sharp change in carbon isotope ratio at around 5200 radiocarbon years BP is interpreted as a shift from a marine diet to one dominated by terrestrial protein. This coincides with the onset of the Neolithic period in Britain. (Reproduced from Richards et al. 2003, with permission of Nature Publishing Group and the first author.)...

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