In the early nineteenth century, museum curators began organizing their prehistoric collections by classifying cutting tools according to the material used to make them: stone, bronze, and iron. This was an initial attempt at relative dating, with stone tools being the oldest and iron tools the newest. This system of relative dating soon extended to other materials which had been found with them. This gave rise to a chronological scheme known as the Three-Age System: Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.
As archaeology yielded more data on the StoneAge in Europe, this era was subdivided into three distinct time periods: Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New Stone Age). Originally, the designation Mesolithic was used as a kind of catch-all era for the rather uninteresting period between the spectacular Paleolithic art and the socioeconomic revolution of the Neolithic. During this time large areas of the coastal lowlands, which would have been valuable hunting areas during the Paleolithic, were lost due to rising sea levels. Consequently, many Mesolithic sites are underwater. Steven Mithen, writing in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, reports:
“From the well-preserved organic remains of northern Europe, and the reconstruction of extensive and complex settlement patterns, the Mesolithic emerges as the period when humans achieved one of the most intensive exploitations of the natural world which was possible with a hunting and gathering mode of existence.”
Steven Mithen also reports:
“The rapid environmental change during the Mesolithic, and the diversity of animal and plant communities across Europe, make it difficult to generalize about Mesolithic communities.”
In terms of stone tools, the Mesolithic is characterized by the use of microliths (small flint blades in the shape of triangles or rhomboids). Multiple microliths could be attached to a handle made of wood, bone, or antler to make a larger cutting tool with a composite blade. Microliths could be used as the barbs and tips on spears..
One of the lithic technologies which is associated with the early Mesolithic Period is Maglemosian. This archaeological culture is named for the Magle Mose bogland of Zealand where archaeologists first found it. Robert Jameson, in his entry on Maglemosian in A Dictionary of Archaeology, reports:
“The lithic industry is characterized by the presence of axes with obliquely blunted points and flints in the shape of large isosceles triangles.”
The Maglemosian tool kit suggests a greater emphasis on woodworking, a reflection of the more thickly forested environment at this time. Lloyd and Jennifer Laing, in their book The Origins of Britain, write:
“The Maglemosians must have spent much of their lives in a green forest twilight. They fashioned a few stone axes to help them cut their way through lighter woodlands. The rest of their toolkit comprised very small flints indeed—the microliths so characteristic of Mesolithic communities. These were mounted up in wooden hafts to make composite tools such as saws or knives.”
Other technological features of the Mesolithic include dugout canoes and the use of willow and hazel branches to make fish traps which were placed in streams to capture migrating salmon.
In his entry on the Mesolithic in A Dictionary of Archaeology, Robert Jameson reports:
“Like the other major divisions of prehistory, the Mesolithic is associated with fundamental socio-economic (as well as technological changes.”
These changes included a hunting, gathering, fishing economy that evolved to meet changing environmental conditions such as afforestation. As the climate warmed, the migratory herds of reindeer shifted north and were replaced by woodland game such as deer and wild pig. Robert Jameson also writes:
“This adaptation is most marked in northern and western Europe, where from c.8000BC to c.6000BC a rise in temperature led to the end of dry, open environments in favour of dense woodlands, especially of hazel. The great herd animals died away in favour of forest-loving fauna such as bear and deer.”
To survive the people had to have intimate knowledge of their ecology. They had to understand more than just what plants, animals, and fish could provide them with food; they also had to know when and where these resources would be available. If they went to an area to harvest berries, for example, and arrived a few days too early or a few days too late, they could miss the harvest and face starvation. It was important that they be able to keep track of the seasons by watching the skies.
As with more modern hunting and gathering peoples, the Mesolithic people also appear to have modified the environment to enhance the land’s yield of game and plants. Archaeological evidence from the English Mesolithic site of Star Carr shows that they burned the area around the site. This encouraged the growth of fresh shoots which, in turn, attracted and sustained game animals. The archaeological data at Star Carr shows that the people ate red deer, roe deer, elk, ox, and pig (in order of amount consumed). At Star Carr, archaeologists have found some of the earliest evidence of the domesticated dog.
In general, the Mesolithic Europeans tended to live in small, relatively mobile bands following a seasonal round of resource collection in a particular territory. With regard to the British Mesolithic, Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins, in their book A Thesaurus of British Archaeology, write:
“The settlement sites which have been properly investigated appear to have been occupied intermittently, probably seasonally. They were probably camping sites with temporary shelters made from organic materials, although only the barest evidence for these shelters has survived.”
Ireland was first occupied during the Mesolithic period. Mount Sandel in County Derry dates to 7900 to 7600 BCE and is the earliest known evidence of human settlement in Ireland. The Mount Sandel site appears to have been occupied year-round. The people at this site built circular huts: placing the butt-end of a sapling in the ground and then bending it over, they created a bowl-like structure.
The migration to Ireland required some type of watercraft, perhaps large dugout canoes. In his book Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts, Laurence Flanagan writes:
“It is generally agreed among archaeologists that Ireland’s Mesolithic settlers came here from some place or places in Britain, from which many features on or near the Irish coast are visible.”
With regard to religion, the Mesolithic people were animistic rather than deistic and their ceremonies focused on hunting, fishing, and gathering rituals. The presence of deer antlers at a number of sites has suggested to archaeologists that these were used in ceremonies in which dancers imitated the actions of deer.
The European Mesolithic was a time of environmental change which required cultures, including religion, to also change to meet the new environmental conditions. Conditions sometimes changed very rapidly. In their book The Complete Practical Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Christopher Catling and Paul Bahn write:
“Perhaps it is no surprise that this is a period in which archaeologists find increasing amounts of evidence for ritualistic or religious practice and for a growing sense of social organization—which could be interpreted as a banding together to form a common front against an uncertain world.”
The archaeological evidence from the Mesolithic also indicates some monument building as well as ritual feasting. Archaeological data from the Heathrow Terminal 5 site in southern England, for example, suggests that ritual feasting occurred regularly over many years.
Like the people in the earlier Paleolithic, Mesolithic people also made jewelry including bone beads and pendants which were used as ornaments attached to clothes or used in necklaces or bracelets. While pendants made from animal teeth and animal bones are found in many Mesolithic graves, in some instances human bones and teeth were also used. At some Maglemose sites, archaeologists have found human teeth which had been perforated. At the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov site in Russia, archaeologists found that 12 out of 37 bone pendants were made of human bone.
More Ancient Europe
Ancient Europe: The Copper Age
Ancient Ireland: The Metal Working Ages
Ancient Europe: Solutrean
Ancient Scandinavia: Viking Women
Ancient Europe: The Faroe Islands
Ancient Scotland: After the Ice Age
Ancient Scotland: Skara Brae (Photo Diary)
Ancient Orkney: The Neolithic (Photo Diary)