Mesolithic

Europe

The Balkan Mesolithic begins around 15,000 years ago, in the Franco-Cantabrian region 14,000 years ago (called Azilian) and in other parts of Europe by 11,500 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene). The Mesolithic ends with the introduction of farming, depending on the region between c. 8,500 and 5,500 years ago. Regions where the end of the last glacial period had greater environmental effects have a much clearer Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. For example, in northern Europe societies could live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands created by the warming climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviors preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. Such conditions also delayed the Neolithic until some 5,500 BP in northern Europe.

One of the Mesolithic's most defining features is the type of stone toolkit. The Mesolithic used a microlithic technology – composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools (microliths), unlike the Modes I–IV used in the Paleolithic. However, a macrolithic technology was used in the Mesolithic in some areas such as Ireland, parts of Portugal, the Isle of Man and the Tyrrhenian Islands. In the Neolithic, microlithic technology was replaced by a macrolithic technology with an increased use of polished stone tools.

There is some evidence for the beginning of construction at sites with a ritual or astronomical significance, including Stonehenge, with a short row of large post holes aligned east–west, and a possible "lunar calendar" at Warren Field in Scotland, with pits of post holes of varying sizes, thought to reflect the lunar phases. Both are dated to before c. 9,000 BP (the 8th millennium BC).

An ancient chewed gum made from the pitch of birch bark revealed that a woman enjoyed a meal of hazelnuts and duck about 5,700 years ago in southern Denmark. Mesolithic people influenced Europe's forests by bringing favored plants like hazel with them.

As the "Neolithic package" (including farming, herding, polished stone axes, timber longhouses and pottery) spread into Europe, the Mesolithic way of life was marginalized and eventually disappeared. Adoption of a farming lifestyle by hunter-gatherer communities was facilitated by long-term close contact with farming communities and those communities' openness to new members. Mesolithic adaptations such as sedentism, population size and use of plant foods are cited as evidence of the transition to agriculture. However, some Mesolithic communities rejected the Neolithic package likely due to ideology. In one sample from the Blätterhöhle in Hagen, it seems that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming; such societies may be called "Subneolithic". In north-Eastern Europe, the hunting and fishing lifestyle continued into the Medieval period in regions less suited to agriculture. And Scandinavia has no accepted Mesolithic period, and instead has locally preferred "Older Stone Age" and "Younger Stone Age".

Art

There is less surviving art from the Mesolithic than the preceding Upper Paleolithic and the following Neolithic. The Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, which probably spreads across from the Upper Paleolithic, is a widespread phenomenon, much less well known than the cave-paintings of the Upper Paleolithic. The sites are now mostly cliff faces in the open air, and the subjects are now mostly human rather than animal, with large groups of small figures; there are 45 figures at Roca dels Moros. Clothing is shown, and scenes of dancing, fighting, hunting and food-gathering. The figures are much smaller than the animals of Paleolithic art, and depicted much more schematically, though often in energetic poses. A few small engraved pendants with suspension holes and simple engraved designs are known, some from northern Europe in amber, and one from Star Carr in Britain in shale. The Elk's Head of Huittinen is a rare Mesolithic animal carving in soapstone from Finland.

The rock art in the Urals appears to show similar changes after the Paleolithic, and the wooden Shigir Idol is a rare survival of what may well have been a very common material for sculpture. It is a plank of larch carved with geometric motifs, but topped with a human head. Now in fragments, it would have stood over five metres tall. The Ain Sakhri figurine from Palestine is a Natufian carving in calcite.

A total of 33 antler frontlets have been discovered at Star Carr. These are red deer skulls modified to be worn by humans. Modified frontlets have also been discovered at Bedburg-Königshoven, Hohen Viecheln, Plau, and Berlin-Biesdorf.

Weaving

Weaving techniques were deployed to create shoes and baskets, the latter being of fine construction and decorated with dyes. Examples have been found in Cueva de los Murciélagos in Southern Spain that in 2023 were dated to 9,500 years ago.

Ceramic Mesolithic

Pottery-making cultures or "ceramic Mesolithic" can be distinguished between c. 9,000 to 5,850 ago in north-eastern Europe, Siberia, and some southern European and North African sites. Russian archaeologists describe them as Neolithic, even though farming is absent. This pottery-making Mesolithic culture is found peripheral to the sedentary Neolithic cultures. Its pottery was distinct, with point or knob base and flared rims, and made by methods not used by Neolithic farmers. Although each area of Mesolithic ceramic developed an individual style, common features suggest a single origin. The earliest finds of this type of pottery may be in the region around Lake Baikal in Siberia. It appears in the Yelshanka culture on the Volga 9,000 years ago, and from there spread via the Dnieper-Donets culture to the Narva culture of the Eastern Baltic. Spreading westward along the coastline it is found in the Ertebølle culture of Denmark and Ellerbek of Northern Germany, and the related Swifterbant culture of the Low Countries.

However, the earliest pottery known in the world was found in 2012 in Xianrendong cave in China, dating by radiocarbon to between 20,000 and 19,000 years ago, at the end of the Last Glacial Period. The date was established by carefully carbon-14 dating surrounding sediments. Many of the pottery fragments had scorch marks, suggesting that the pottery was used for cooking. These early pottery containers were made well before the invention of agriculture around 10,000 to 8,000 BC, by mobile foragers who hunted and gathered their food during the Late Glacial Maximum.

Cultures

Outside Europe

While "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" have been useful concepts in the archaeology of China, and are mostly accepted, "Mesolithic" was introduced later, mostly after 1945, and does not appear to be a necessary or useful term in the context of China. Chinese sites that have been regarded as Mesolithic are better considered Early Neolithic.

In the archaeology of India, the Mesolithic, dated roughly between 12,000 and 8,000 BP, remains a concept in use.

In the archaeology of the Americas, an Archaic or Meso-Indian period, following the Lithic stage, somewhat equates to the Mesolithic.

The Saharan rock paintings found at Tassili n'Ajjer in central Sahara, and at other locations depict vivid scenes of everyday life in central North Africa. Some of these paintings were executed by a hunting people who lived in a savanna region teeming with a water-dependent species like the hippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert area.