This study examines how Mesolithic lithic technology provides direct, yet often neglected, information about the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer mobility strategies in northern England, especially in relation to the Central Pennines {CP} of northwest England. It therefore provides a narrative which intimately links Mesolithic mobility strategies, settlement patterns, lithic raw material consumption, and tool use in the Central Pennine upland landscape and adjacent areas. The research area of the Central Pennines provides an ideal case study upon which to test current models of Mesolithic mobility and Mesolithic tool use because it is probably the densest distribution of Mesolithic sites currently known, and is in an area which has virtually no naturally occurring lithic resources which meant the Mesolithic people had to import all lithic raw materials. In order to elucidate the narrative, this study develops the Lithoscapes Referential Framework Model {LRFM} which integrates: 1} a methodological foundation for the documenting of lithic and landscape data including historiographic studies, and an explicitly defined lithic methodology, period and sub-period/sub-phase definitions with a radiocarbon chronology} with 2} an interpretive structure which defines conceptual links between the lithic evidence, hunter-gatherer mobility, and the landscape including the concepts of persistent places, risk, taskscapes, the choine operatoire model, positive feedback loops, and the equipotential hypothesis and idea of flexible tool use. The LRFM is placed at the , core of this study and enables the use of lithic evidence to document and investigate both Mesolithic choine operatoires on and between Central Pennine sites, as well as related aspects of Mesolithic mobility and the landscape. In particular, this study uses the lithic evidence to reappraise the mobility models that have been widely employed by archaeologists to explain Mesolithic settlement patterns. It shows that the Central Pennine Mesolithic sites were persistent places, that were repeatedly visited to exploit local plant and animal resources, had significant levels of site investment, were situated on Trans-Pennine pathways that linked rivers (which are argued to have been the main navigable transit routes), and were near to near to culturally significant 'handrail' landmarks. The lithics found on these persistent places are shown to have been exclusively imported from a hinterland covering Northern England. This hinterland compares well with population density reconstructions, and contains similar lithic styles (during the Early and Late Mesolithic). Consequently, this hinterland is suggested - to reflect a socio- ethnic/linguistic territory and/or that it implies that mobility was from throughout Northern England, with the Pennines being a key node or the Nexus of increasingly logistical resource and mobility networks. This therefore challenges traditional east-west mobility models, and the suggestions of smaller separate interior and coastal social territories. The long distance transport of the raw materials to the Central Pennines is shown to have impacted on the chaine operatoires and resulted in distinctly different Central Pennine lithic exploitation strategies (compared to those seen in the more traditionally researched lowland assemblages from karstic areas). In the Central Pennines impacts of the long distances included the virtual lack of on-site knapping, high levels of blade/let or tool importation, and the increased occurrence of flexible strategies (such as risk avoidance, caching, equipotentiality, and retooling). Furthermore, changes in raw material preferences appear to be directly linked to changes in the transit routes used (i.e. as part of changes in the larger mobility cycle over time). In addition, evidence is presented that shows there were distinct te~hnological traditions and cultural preferences in the Mesolithic of northern England. The evidence also implies that the Mesolithic knappers were extremely resourceful and able to adapt these formal trajectories in response to distance related stress (i.e. risk avoidance strategies), and the mitigation of unfavourable raw material properties. Deviation from the formal trajectories was also caused by the use of flexible strategies such as equipotentiality, retooling, and caching which also caused positive feedback loops on the chaine operatoires. Reasons for the flexible technological strategies are investigated including the necessity to import raw materials to the Central Pennines.

Le Sauveterrien représente l'une des principales traditions culturelles du Premier Mésolithique européen. L'uniformité présumée de ce complexe était basée surtout sur la présence dans la France méridionale et l'Italie septentrionale de pointes à dos fusiformes (pointes de Sauveterre) et de microlithes triangulaires. Le but principal de ce travail est celui de mettre en discussion et vérifier cette association en utilisant une approche technologique ample des assemblages lithiques appartenant à 23 contextes stratigraphiques de 12 sites français et italiens de référence. En particulier, ces assemblages ont été analysés avec l'objectif de reconstruire les chaînes opératoires dans leur totalité, de l'approvisionnement des matières premières à l'utilisation et à l'abandon des éléments ayant servi comme outils. Plusieurs techniques d'analyse ont été intégrées afin de comprendre et caractériser les assemblages sauveterriens à partir de points de vue différents et complémentaires. De plus, l'évaluation de l'uniformité du complexe sauveterrien dans son territoire central par rapports aux groupes culturels des régions voisines a permis d'aborder de façon préliminaire la question de la réelle nature du Premier Mésolithique de l'Europe occidentale. / The Sauveterrian represents one of the main cultural aspects of the European Early Mesolithic. It was at first identified and described in southern France during the 1920ies. Following the discovery of similar lithic assemblages in north-eastern Italy (Adige Valley), during the 1970ies it was proposed that this culture had developed over a large territory whose central areas are represented by southern France and northern Italy. The presumed uniformity of this complex was based, in particular, on the presence in both regions of needle-like backed points (Sauveterre points) and triangular microliths. In the following years a first typological attempt to verify the actual homogeneity of the Early Mesolithic of this region arose some doubts regarding the appropriateness of this unification. Following this line of research the main aim of this work was, thus, to question and verify this association, by applying a broad technological approach to the study of the lithic assemblages belonging to 23 stratigraphic contexts from 12 French and Italian reference sites. More specifically these assemblages were investigated with the aim of reconstructing the entire reduction sequences, from the procurement of lithic raw materials to the use and discard of tools. Different analytical techniques were thus combined in order to understand and characterize the Sauveterrian assemblages from different and complementary viewpoints. Besides, the evaluation of the uniformity of the Sauveterrian complex in its central area with respect to the neighbouring cultural groups, allowed tentatively approaching the investigation of the very nature of western European Early Mesolithic.