In this essay you will be reading and learing about the early Mesolithic from 8000 BC-6000 BC in the archipelago area of Södertörn, east central Sweden. The focus is on the Mesolithic pioneers and how they managed to adapt to their surroundings. To be able to investigate the area I have used a qualitative method which above all includes usage of literature.   The purpose of the essay is to get a better understanding of how people used to live during the Mesolithic and also try to understand how and why they did things. For example why they moved from the mainland to the peninsula in the first place.

This thesis explores the development of material approaches in archaeology to discuss the relationship between material engagements in the world and cosmological schemes. In particular, the role of key materials in cosmologies is considered in light of ideas about elements and their fundamental role in the composition of the world. Three materials (wood, fire and water) are then considered in detail using anthropological illustrations to highlight the range of ways wood, fire and water are understood in traditional societies. Archaeological examples from the late Mesolithic and earliest Neolithic are examined in light of these ideas to suggest new possibilities for interpretations of the material remains discussed. These discussions of materials and cosmologies are set against a background of the debates surrounding the transition to the Neolithic. In particular, recent challenges to perceptions of the Mesolithic are considered to highlight the problematic discourses that have traditionally dominated studies of the period. It is amongst these critical reappraisals that this thesis contributes to emerging narratives of lives in the Mesolithic. The use of wood, fire and water is examined in contexts of the late Mesolithic and earliest Neolithic and is suggested to show much continuity in the practices that used wood, fire and water. Similar properties were actively called upon in these continued practices however, their deployment in new contexts and practices is suggested to indicate a shift in the importance of certain properties or characteristics. The implications of this in relation to cosmological schemes suggests aspects of continuity such as connections between materials and the landscape but accompanied by a stronger emphasis on certain relationships and processes within the world such as the transformation of bodies and articulation of community.

Lithic scatters are the most abundant class of evidence relating to Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic activity in southern Britain. Many such scatters, especially those from surface and ploughsoil contexts, have long been characterised as being of low-interpretive value and have been marginalised both in academic studies of the periods and in the wider context of protecting and managing the historic environment. This vast body of evidence makes little contribution to contemporary understandings of the LUP and Mesolithic, which remains largely informed by work which privileges the investigation of well-preserved sites with in situ lithic scatters, especially those with associated faunal remains and palaeoenvironmental evidence. This has serious implications for our ability to characterise and interpret activity in locations and regions where such well preserved and intensively investigated sites are lacking, and in many areas of the country policy makers, fieldworkers and curators are not equipped with the information necessary to make informed decisions concerning the investigation, management and protection of the archaeology of these periods. This thesis explicitly address these issues through a detailed case study of the lithic scatter record from a study area in eastern England. This study is based around a comprehensive database of reported lithic scatters, assembled from a wide range of published and unpublished sources and encompassing all kinds of scatters, from well preserved and exhaustively analysed in-situ scatters to poorly provenanced collections of lithics amassed in the late 19th and early 20th century. This thesis provides the first comprehensive synthesis of the Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of the study area and explicitly assesses the interpretative potential of the lithic scatter record, in terms of how it can be used both to develop narratives of landscape occupation and to inform future work on, and management of, lithic scatters in the study area and beyond.

This study presents an analysis of the zooarchaeological remains from Klissoura Cave 1, a Middle Paleolithic through Mesolithic site in Peloponnese, Greece. Changes in subsistence patterns are evaluated across a long sequence (ca. 80,000-10,000 BP) against a backdrop of environmental change. Results are interpreted using models from evolutionary ecology, specifically prey choice, central place foraging, and patch choice models. Two major trends are apparent in the series. One is a decline in the exploitation of high-ranked ungulate species with an overall increase in lower-ranked small game animals. The second is an increase in low-ranked small, fast-fast moving animals (e.g., hares and partridges) at the expense of higher-ranked small, slow-moving animals (e.g., tortoises). These changes cannot be accounted for by environmental shifts alone, though shifts in ungulate diversity likely track the expansion and contraction of plant communities. The increase in use of low-ranked prey indicates human population growth and demographic pressure in southern Greece during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. In addition to these overarching trends, there are changes in site use during the sequence. In the Middle Paleolithic, foragers used Klissoura Cave 1 more during the winter and overwhelmingly hunted prime-aged adult animals, maternal herds of fallow deer in particular. In the Upper Paleolithic and later periods, the site continued to be used during the winter, in addition to other times of year, but the mortality profiles reflect a natural fallow deer herd structure. There was an intense period of occupation during the Aurignacian period. This is evidenced by numerous clay-lined hearth features, a possible rock-lined structure, and increases in ornaments, as well as abundant lithic and faunal materials. The ungulate faunas are particularly rich during this period, but there is evidence of resource intensification based on increased bone marrow processing and the transport of marrow-rich elements to the site. After this period there was a gradual decline in site use through the end of the Upper Paleolithic and into the Mesolithic, though the exploitation of low-ranked resources (e.g., small, fast-moving game) indicates that populations were on the rise in there region as a whole.

Coastal shell middens, a prominent feature of the Mesolithic (11,500–6000 cal BP) archaeological record of western Scotland, suggest a maritime economy based on fishing and shellfish. Despite evidence for the importance of fish and shellfish to diet, virtually nothing is known as to the methods of procurement. Initially, work focussed on the palaeoenvironments of Scottish West Coast Mesolithic coastal sites, to establish the resources available to Mesolithic coastal dwellers. A range of archaeological/ethnohistorical fishing gear and food procurement strategies is described, together with views of field archaeologists, bushcraft practitioners and experimental archaeologists. These perspectives together with palaeoenvironmental data were considered when producing fishing gear utilising resources and technologies available during the Mesolithic. Fieldwork and experiments were conducted at the Scottish West Coast Mesolithic coastal sites of Ulva Cave, the Oban area, the island of Oronsay, and Sand, together with South Uist and the Urr estuary on the Solway Firth. The fishing gear manufactured reflects current debates as to fishing strategies, as such, several archaeological ‘models’ were tested. The gear also enabled an attempt at targeting the main fish and crab species found in the middens; Pollachius virens, Labridae, Pollachius pollachius, Carcinus maenas, Liocarcinus depurator and Cancer pagurus. In addition to fishing experiments, ecological surveys and forage exercises established the species present and available to a contemporary coastal forager, providing an indication as to the vigour and abundance of shoreline species. This data was compared to data from the middens, providing an insight into potential collection strategies. Exploratory procurement and manufacture experiments were conducted that tested a variety of materials, including their suitability for use, while bait tests assessed bait desirability. The results suggest that for Mesolithic groups to successfully exploit the coastal environments adjacent to the West coast midden sites, knowledge of tides and species together with simple manufacturing skills would have been sufficient.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-179). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-179). Also available on the Internet.

No description available.

As hunter-fisher-gatherers, the lives of Mesolithic humans in Britain would have revolved, to a great extent, around the daily encounters and interactions with animals that were necessary for the provision of nutrients for survival. Traditional narratives of human-animal relations have viewed animals through an economic lens, interpreting their significance in terms of the nutritional or material resources they provided Mesolithic humans. However, more recent studies argue human-animal relations in the past should instead be considered as developing through their daily interactions and engagements with each other, in which animals have the potential to play an active role in shaping human understanding. In such narratives, animals are no longer a resource: instead, they are potential agents. This thesis uses zooarchaeological data from four Early Mesolithic faunal assemblages from Southern Britain to characterise the appearance, habits and behaviours of the species and individuals within each assemblages. These are used to consider the specific encounters humans had at each site, and the particular understandings humans formed as a result. Ultimately, if human treatment of animal remains was guided by an understanding developed through encounter and engagements, it is vital these experiences are understood. Furthermore, negotiations of relationships developed through encounters are traced through processes of hunting, killing, butchery, consumption, and deposition, exploring how these understandings and relationships are manifest in the material record.

This thesis focuses on practices of disarticulation and bodily manipulation in the Mesolithic of north-west Europe. While the presence of 'loose human bone' has been noted on Mesolithic sites for several decades, this has often been dismissed as the result of taphonomic factors, such as disturbed graves. Instead, studies of mortuary practices have primarily focused on the cemeteries and issues of social complexity, ranking and status. Disarticulated human bone, which cannot throw new light on such issues, has consequently been ignored. Only with more recent discoveries of larger collections of disarticulated human remains, from secure contexts, has this phenomena begun to be taken more seriously, Cauwe (2001) arguing for example, that disarticulation represents the primary Mesolithic mortuary practice. Despite this claim, little work has focused on practices of manipulation and disarticulation beyond a few studies of individual sites, thus little is understood about the nature and variability of these mortuary practices. The aim of this thesis is therefore to provide a broad study of disarticulated Mesolithic remains across north-west Europe (though excluding Scandinavia). In order to tackle the methodological issues involved in the analysis of these assemblages, as well as to provide a considered study of the context of these remains, three detailed osteological case studies - Hardinxveld in the Netherlands and Les Varennes and Petit Marais in France - are presented. These are then compared with a series of well-published sites in order to draw out the full parameters of Mesolithic mortuary variability. It is argued here that Mesolithic mortuary practices were complex and were often temporally and spatially extended. These practices of disarticulation and manipulation also appear to indicate a concern with bodily decay and the circulation of body parts. The implications of these practices for the understanding of Mesolithic identities, bodies, and attitudes to death are also drawn out.