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- Burial Practices (Archaeology), Mesolithic Europe, Cemeteries, Graves

The monumental nature of Neolithic funerary rites is analysed by archaeologists in relation to its alleged links with the management of land by agro-pastoral communities. This article examines the social dynamics in the Neolithic of Western France, with a particular focus on how human populations mastered oceanic geographical and environmental characteristics. Numerous excavations during the
last fifteen years have significantly transformed the chronology. The evolution of the Mesolithic has been completely renewed and there is now a lack of reliable data between 5300 and 5000 BC (Mesolithic / Neolithic transition). Obviously dependent on a pioneer movement, the Late Bandkeramik of the Paris Basin and Villeneuve-Saint-Germain are well documented in villages that now cover the whole Breton peninsula up to the Loire river. Its early dates when compared to the Parisian Basin model could be due to bias within the calibration curve. South of the Loire, our knowledge of the Early Neolithic in the Centre-Atlantic
region, which is Mediterranean in origin, remains embryonic and centred on the chronological interval 4700-4500 BC. The analysis of social organization shows a clear difference between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic; it also applies to the technical traditions that are subject to an abrupt break. The issue of transmission of arrowhead technology between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic is no longer relevant, because of the revision of the chronology. Two technical domains are likely to have been inherited from the indigenous coastal communities: fisheries
and navigation. Their degree of respective control may have conditioned the socioeconomic foundations of the first agro-pastoral societies in Western France. The successive steps of the transmission of knowledge during the Atlantic Neolithic are discussed. It points to asset control and power in a few hands, which is best ‘embodied’ in the central tomb of the Tumulus Saint-Michel, dated around 4700-4600 BC. We do not know the economic foundations that ensure the ustainabilityof this social structure; their maritime dimension should not be overlooked.

- by Marcel J L T Niekus
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe

W. Heuschen, M. Baales & J. Orschiedt (2016): 1. Neue Grabungen in der Blätterhöhle in Hagen und auf ihrem Vorplatz. Archäologie in Westfalen-Lippe 2015, 28-31.
The excavation mounted at the entrance to the Blätterhöhle cave and in the cave itself continued in 2015. New profile sections were dug in the area of the hearth among other places, samples were taken and finds recovered.
One of the new finds was an arrow-shaft smoother made of coarse sandstone, suggesting that wooden arrow shafts were made at the entrance to the cave during the Mesolithic period.

- by Michael Baales and +2
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe, Bow and Arrow Technology
- by Николай Бондар Nicolay Bondar and +1
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Mesolithic Archaeology, Stone Age (Archaeology)

Nous présentons le contexte de découverte des céramiques néolithiques de la couche 4 (attribuée au Mésolithique récent)
du Trou Al’Wesse. La répartition spatiale du matériel archéologique, ainsi que des données stratigraphiques, montrent que ces tessons n’appartiennent pas à l’ensemble mésolithique. Des processus post-dépositionels devant l’entrée ont mélangé ces tessons avec du matériel lithique mésolithique. La stratigraphie montre également que, contre les parois rocheuses, il n’y a pas de mélange entre les deux occupations.

- by Rebecca Miller
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe

A rare archaeological find from the Don River (Central Russia), a large dugout found in 1954 is described. The history of discovery, fieldwork and conservation are outlined. The key role at all stages belonged to Maria Voss, who did her best to unearth and preserve this dugout - the first Prehistoric one to be found, restored and exhibited in the USSR. She passed away before being able to describe the boat in detail. Its age is still under question, certain facts relating to the archaeological context contradict the old dating version (Neolithic-Early Bronze Age) and no C14 analysis has been conducted. A brief review of Stone Age European dugouts is provided.

In den Naturwissenschaften ist es von großem Interesse, wie sich Tierwelt, Vegetation und Landschaft am Ende der Eiszeit vor und nach dem Eingreifen des Menschen entwickelt und gegenseitig beeinflusst haben. In der Paläoökologie werden große Herbivoren der so genannten Megafauna (>45kg) als Modellorganismen genutzt, um solche komplexen Prozesse zu rekonstruieren. Die subfossilen Knochenreste dieser Arten wurden durch die häufige Bejagung in der Steinzeit im Gegensatz zu anderen Wirbeltierarten vergleichsweise repräsentativ im Erdreich abgelagert. In Mitteleuropa breiteten sich vor ca. 14000 - 13000 Jahren schon Rothirsch, Reh, Ur, Wildschwein und Elch mit unterschiedlicher Dynamik nördlich der Alpen aus. Diese Arten stellen zusammen mit dem Waldwisent und dem Wildpferd einen potenziell natürlichen Bestandteil der nacheiszeitlichen Ökosysteme Mitteleuropas dar, und durch sie induzierte Prozesse bedeuten daher 'natürliche Wildnis'. Wildpferde und Totholzkäfer, welche als Indikatoren für den Zustand der nacheiszeitlichen Urlandschaft herangezogen werden, zeigen, dass auch der Mensch spätestens seit der Jungsteinzeit einen Einfluss auf die Biodiversität hatte.

- by Ulrich Schmölcke and +1
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- Landscape Ecology, Environmental Science, Landscape Archaeology, Human-Environment Relations
- by Petr Šída
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe
- by Grégor Marchand
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe, Prehistory

The Mesolithic site at Ostrovul Banului was investigated by Vasile Boroneant in 1966, prior to the building of the Iron Gates I hydroelectric dam. 227 items made of hard animal materials (in various stages of manufacturing) were the subject of the present research. Four categories of raw materials were identified: deer antler, long bone diaphyses, teeth (mammals and fish) and gastropod shells. All raw materials could have been obtained locally, suggesting
their direct acquisition and processing by the Mesolithic community. The typological range is limited, but comprises well-defined tool series. The most representative were antler chisels, bone points and tusk side-scrapers. While the projectile points are indicative of hunting activities, the other items suggest domestic uses (cutting and shaving wood, perforating and cleaning hides, etc.). An important observation concerns raw material differentiation of the blanks: volume blanks for antler, and flat blanks in the case of bone and tooth. Analysis of the hard animal materials from Ostrovul Banului indicates a community that was highly
specialized both economically and technologically. The inventory fits the general pattern of Mesolithic assemblages from the Iron Gates.

- by Adina Boroneant and +1
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- Mesolithic Europe, Bone Technology (Archaeology)

This article presents the results of the analyses of fish remains from Dąbki, site 9, situated on the western part of the Polish Baltic coastline. Most samples were excavated from an inshore refuse layer in the peat bog, while some other samples come from a Stone Age settlement located at the shore of the former lake (silted up and overgrown). A total of 18 ichthyological taxa were identified (15 freshwater and 3 migratory). The study showed that, despite the site’s relatively close proximity to the seashore, the fishing economy had a local character and was probably concentrated on the fresh and brackish waters of the nearest lakes and rivers.

- by Harry K Robson and +1
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Stable isotope ecology, Stable Isotope Analysis
- by Alberto Mingo
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- Paleoclimatology, Mesolithic Archaeology, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology

The oldest sites discovered in the territory of interest date back to Early Holocene. Data from Veretie sites east of Lake Onega suggests that the banks of LakeLache and Lake Vozhe were well explored and used
for long-term settlement. Elsewhere in the region, only short-term camps with artefacts of various technology
have been found. Their occupants had similar occupation patterns characterised by high mobility. This
distinguishes them from the populations of the Veretie culture. Some of these nomadic groups resemble the
“Post-Sviderian” populations of the Volga-Oka region; others, the so-called Kama Mesolithic people. However,
there is not enough evidence to include the north and north-west of the Russian Plain into the habitat
of these cultures. This is true for the entire stretch of the Mesolithic age.
Keywords: the Russian Plain, the Mesolithic, the Veretie culture, technology, the Kama culture, the
Parchevskaya culture, occupation pattern"

- by Александр Волокитин
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- Mesolithic Europe

No vale do Sado, Arapouco apresenta-se como um sítio-chave para discussão das modalidades de implantação e funcionamento do conjunto de concheiros do Mesolítico final, desta região. Perspectivas anteriores têm defendido o carácter especializado e temporário de Arapouco, no contexto deste complexo de concheiros, tratando-se do sítio mais a jusante até agora identificado e com maior abundância de restos de ictiofauna (ARNAUD 1989, 2000; GABRIEL 2010). A análise isotópica realizada sobre um esqueleto humano proveniente do concheiro de Arapouco demonstra a importância dos recursos marinhos, na dieta deste indivíduo (CUNHA & UMBELINO 2001). Não obstante, a cultura material deste sítio não foi alvo de estudo sistemático até à data, apesar da sua reconhecida importância para o conhecimento do povoamento e da paleo-economia pré-históricas. Neste sentido, a análise da indústria lítica de Arapouco afigurou-se como uma tarefa imperativa, apresentando-se aqui os primeiros resultados. Detectar na indústria lítica de Arapouco elementos específicos que conectem o sítio com a exploração especializada de recursos aquáticos constitui o objectivo central desta análise.

- by Diana Nukushina and +1
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe, Lithic Analysis
- by Catherine Dupont and +1
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- Mesolithic Europe, Mesolithic/Neolithic, Archaeology of shell middens
- by Marcel J L T Niekus and +1
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic/Epipalaeolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe, Mesolithic
- by Harry K Robson
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe, Mesolithic/Neolithic, Ertebølle

The harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus), today a subarctic species with breeding populations in the White Sea, around the Jan Mayen Islands and Newfoundland, was a common pinniped species in the Baltic Sea during the mid-and late Holocene. It is puzzling how an ice dependent species could breed in the Baltic Sea during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM), and it remains unclear for how long harp seals bred in the Baltic Sea and when the population became extirpated. We combined radiocarbon dating of harp seal bones with zooarchaeological, palaeoenvironmental and stable isotope data to reconstruct the harp seal occurrence in the Baltic Sea. Our study revealed two phases of harp seal presence and verifies that the first colonization and establishment of a local breeding population occurred within the HTM. We suggest that periods with very warm summers but cold winters allowed harp seals to breed on the ice. Human pressure, salinity fluctuations with consequent changes in prey availability and competition for food resources, mainly cod, resulted in physiological stress that ultimately led to a population decline and local extirpation during the first phase. The population reappeared after a long hiatus. Final extinction of the Baltic Sea harp seal coincided with the Medieval Warm Period. Our data provide insights for the first time on the combined effects of past climatic and environmental change and human pressure on seal populations and can contribute with new knowledge on ongoing discussions concerning the impacts of such effects on current arctic seal populations.

- by Ulrich Schmölcke and +2
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- Marine Biology, Stable Isotope Analysis, Mesolithic Archaeology, Baltic Sea Region Studies
- by Harry K Robson and +6
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe
- by Bart Wils
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe, Mesolithic

Magister thesis at Heidelberg University April 2014

Although there is a long tradition in Mesolithic studies in Portugal, the behavior analysis of the last hunter-gathers from Western Iberia shows the existence of a high number of gaps. The amount of information available, as well as the highly variable data causes great difficulty in the formation of a model of human landscape occupation.
Through a location parameter analysis related to the Vale do Tejo human occupation in the Atlantic phase (7500-5000 BP), and based on the correlation between the landscape today and in the past, and using the Geographic Information System (GIS) a predictive model was created with a triple objective towards: the identification of new archeological sites; the acquisition of data on the interaction between humans and the environment both micro and macrospacialy; and to contribute to the development of GIS use in archeological research.

- by Alfred Sanchis and +1
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- Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe
- by Mette Kjelstrup
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- Mesolithic Europe

The presence of pottery on sites that are otherwise
culturally attributed to the Mesolithic poses a series
of problems in relation to the development of the
Neolithisation process. These problems relate to the
association of the pottery with the Mesolithic lithic
industry and to the question whether the indigenous
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers might have produced
their own pots. This paper presents several Late Mesolithic
sites where pottery has been found and seeks
to provide an overview of the various possibilities regarding
this phenomenon.

- by Bart Vanmontfort and +1
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- Pottery (Archaeology), Neolithic Archaeology, Ceramics (Archaeology), Mesolithic Europe

Lepenski Vir is one of the best known Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites in Europe and the world. This book is the first volume of a comprehensive archaeological and anthropological study of the human skeletal remains from this site. Bringing various strands of mortuary evidence together for the first time the author provides a more complete picture of life and death at Lepenski Vir, including comparisons of the many contexts in which human remains have been found as well as details of biological characteristics of the people who created such distinctive material culture at the site. The site of Lepenski Vir is one of the best documented and analyzed contexts for the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition anywhere. A combination of a detailed study of archaeological data, archaeothanatological analysis, science-based approaches to the skeletal material, and a social bioarchaeology perspective regarding the integration of different strands of data when providing wider interpretations, make this book an unique contribution to the current literature on the many-sided consequences of the change from foraging to farming.
http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/deathways-at-lepenski-vir.html

In this paper, a systematic review of archaeobotanical data from Stone Age (c. 8900–1500 cal BC) sites in mainland Finland is presented for the first time and compared with ethnographical data. The data was collected from 76 archaeological sites and consists of charred and waterlogged remains from soil samples and charred hand-picked remains from archaeological excavations. The data shows that various wild plants were gathered in Finland during the Stone Age and that different opportunities for plant gathering prevailed in various parts of the country. Hazel and water chestnut were widespread and used in locales further to the north than where they grow today, but they were still confined to southern Finland. Some plants, such as bearberry and crowberry, were ubiquitous and collected throughout Finland. In the light of the data analysed, it is suggested that most of the charred plant remains derive from food processing (roasting, smoking, frying, cooking), waste management, and fuel use.

- by Santeri Vanhanen and +1
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- Archaeobotany, Neolithic Europe, Mesolithic Europe, Finland

A new transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary field that emerges in pedagogics is commented. Arts coupled with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is the STEM with Arts (STEAM). It introduces students and educators to an holistic approach in classroom. STEAM removes limitations and replaces them with wonder, critique, inquiry, and innovation. This editorial commentary introduces to Scientific Culture readers to the current status and potential of this field and initiates a further step to encompass Culture, as well. This is the STEMAC (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics for Arts & Culture), novel, and, surely integrated reapprochement, which reinforces the fragmentary bridges and sort of lack of coherence, between natural sciences and engineering & technology, with, and, for humanities (art / culture).

In de reeks Archeologie in Fryslân komen de verschillende historische landschappen van Fryslân aan bod. Elk deel biedt een overzicht van de resultaten van oud en nieuw onderzoek naar de wisselwerking tussen het landschap en zijn bewoners door de eeuwen heen. 11.000 tot 7.000 jaar geleden was Fryslân één grote wildernis. Een uitgestrekt oerbos, afgewisseld met open plekken, werd doorsneden door vele kleine
waterstromen en bewoond door wilde dieren. Door dit landschap trokken kleine groepen jager-verzamelaars, levend van wat het land, de lucht en het water hen bood. We noemen deze periode de Midden-Steentijd of Mesolithicum. Van het leven van deze rondtrekkende jagers vinden we slechts een klein deel in de bodem terug. Alleen hun vuurstenen werktuigen, het afval van de bewerking daarvan, resten van hun kampvuren en heel soms sporen van hun onderkomens zijn in de grond bewaard gebleven. Door deze nauwkeurig te bestuderen, kunnen we ons toch een beeld vormen van hoe het leven en het landschap er toen uit hebben gezien. Hieruit blijkt dat Fryslân en vooral de omgeving rond het Burgumer Mar (vroeger: Bergumermeer) duizenden jaren lang een grote aantrekkingskracht op de Steentijdjagers had. Universitaire- en amateur-archeologen (stientsjesikers) hebben hier in de afgelopen honderd jaar namelijk tientallen vindplaatsen en duizenden vuurstenen artefacten uit de Midden-Steentijd gevonden.In dit boek kijken we naar al die vondsten en opgravingen, die samen het verhaal van het Friese Mesolithicum vertellen. We staan bijvoorbeeld uitgebreid stil bij een grote opgraving uit de jaren ’70 aan de oevers van het Burgumer Mar en bij een recent onderzoek bij Sumar in het kader van de aanleg van de Centrale As. Maar we besteden ook veel aandacht aan de verschillende Friese stientsjesikers, die een onmisbare rol spelen in het onderzoek naar de Midden-Steentijd in Fryslân.

Since the 19th century, the so-called “Fontainebleau rock art” have been recognized in small cavities of the southern part of the Ile de France, in a rare context typified by accumulations of eroded sandstone boulders. The dating of this non-figurative art, characterized by numerous grooved lines and grids, has always been the subject of much speculation. In the last thirty years, an attribution to the Mesolithic has been the most widely accepted interpretation owing to the discovery of highly worn lithic objects, considered as engraving tools and associated with Mesolithic artifacts in several rock shelters. This paper aims to question the Mesolithic hypothesis in the light of a new methodological and archaeological approach. First, a use-wear analysis of several hundred worn tools from three rock shelters confirms their connection with the numerous lines grooved in the sandstone walls. In a second time, a critical review of the archaeological data consolidates the Mesolithic dating. The engraving tools are always associated with a diagnostic industry, but the typology of the microliths discovered in the archaeological layers indicates mixture between several phases of the regional Mesolithic. Luckily, the typo-technological analyses of the engraving tool blanks highlight the systematic re-use of Early Mesolithic tools and bladelets as opposed to Late Mesolithic artifacts which are never worn by sandstone grooving. Considering the recurrence of these observations for the three studied rock shelters, the Early Mesolithic dating of the Fontainebleau rock art can be considered as a solid hypothesis, identifying the southern part of Ile-de-France as one of the major regions in Europe as concerns Mesolithic rock art.

- by Daniela Holst
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- Archaeology, Spatial Analysis, Archaeobotany, Nutrition
- by Robert M Chapple
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- Ancient History, Irish Studies, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology

Aδημοσίευτη Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία/Unpublished Master Thesis

Kniha byla vydána v Kijevě v roce 1982 / The book was published in Kiev in 1982 / Книга була видана в Києві в 1982 році.

- by Digital library Bohemia and +1
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic/Epipalaeolithic Archaeology
- by Vangelis Tourloukis and +1
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Mesolithic Archaeology, Greek Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe