Cost-benefit models derived from evolutionary ecology have led to the general expectation that territoriality will be found where resources are most abundant and predictable. Literature sources for four Bushman groups, however, indicate that the most territorial of these groups are found where resources are sparsest and most variable. This paper has as its aim the extension of the animal models of territoriality to make them more widely applicable to human foragers. The Bushmen control access to territorial resources in ways not found in other animals, and it is argued that these differences in the means of territorial defense may alter the expected relationships between environmental variables and territorial costs and benefits. The seemingly anomalous findings concerning Bushman territoriality are shown to be consistemt with cost-benefit theory only when this and other factors are taken into a account.

/pdf/territoriality-among-human-foragers-ecological-models-and-an-4qooi0o5nj.pdf

Territoriality Among Human Foragers: Ecological Models and an Application To Four Bushman Groups

The purpose of this paper is to review the current evidence for plant use in Mesolithic Europe and to summarize its implications. In order to do so, four sources of data are examined: macrobotanical remains, palynological data, artefactual evidence, and the human biological record. A prelimary survey of palaeobotanical evidence for plant use in the Mesolithic indicates that the evidence is far more extensive than expected hitherto and that accumulations of plant food, especially of nuts, point to their regular and extensive use. In those areas such as Britain, where a large number of fine-resolution palynological studies have been carried out, the incidence of clearance and burning phases seems to be too high to be explained by acts of nature alone. A good case can be made for deliberate forest clearance and the maintenance of a more open landscape by Late Mesolithic groups as part of a promotional strategy to increase the productivity of nut and fruit trees and shrubs, wetland plants, and possibly native grasses. Artefactual evidence points to a widespread distribution of soil-working tools (hoes and antler mattocks), especially in temperate Europe, and to a greater than expected presence of reaping and grinding equipment, lending conditional support for the existence of a specialized plant processing tool kit for digging, reaping, and plant processing. Palaeopathological evidence indicates the existence of a dietary pattern in the west Mediterranean making extensive use of starchy and carbohydrate foods which resulted in a high caries rate among the Mesolithic population of that area. In discussing the signiftcanse of these four lines of evidence, it is argued that, by the Late Mesolithic, the patterns of plant use support the notion of wild plant food husbandry instead of the incidental and opportunistic use of plants for food which has implicitly been accepted as a norm for the Mesolithic in Europe. Three geographical areas can be identified with their specific pattern of plant use: temperate Europe, Mediterranean Europe, and the south-eastern Balkans/Pontic Steppe. The patterns of plant use suggested in this paper emphasize the additive nature of the adoption of the agro-pastoral Neolithic farming practices in Europe.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0079497X00003388

Plant use in the mesolithic and its role in the transition to farming

Recent investigations of prefarming adaptations during the Mesolithic period in early Holocene Europe have led to significant revision of traditional views. A number of innovations and changes occur, particularly toward the end of the Mesolithic, that permit this time to be described as both dynamic and extraordinary. Permanent settlement and the use of domesticated animals, exchange, and, perhaps, cultivated plants and monumental tombs characterize a number of later Mesolithic adaptations. The transition to the Neolithic is now regarded as the result of in situ developments in most areas of Western Europe, as Mesolithic groups slowly adopted pottery, cultigens, and other characteristics of farming villagers. In this paper, questions regarding chronology, nomenclature, and the definition of terms are addressed initially. Changes in European environments at the close of the Pleistocene and during the early postglacial are considered in terms of major impacts on human adaptation. The central focus of this study is a survey of the Mesolithic in Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Recent research projects in these areas are discussed in terms of new approaches and results. An overview of developments in these countries is also presented, emphasizing the transitions from the Paleolithic and into the Neolithic. Concluding remarks address future directions in Mesolithic research.

The mesolithic of Western Europe

Archaeobotanical analyses carried out in Mesolithic and Neolithic contexts from Basque caves show that hazelnuts, acorns and Pomoideae fruits are the wild plant foods more frequently preserved. The visibi- lity of these products is related to the physical properties of the tissues they are formed with and also to the prac- tices related to their consumption, processing and discarding. Archaeological and environmental information shows that during the Mesolithic and the Neolithic wild plant foods might have been intensively gathered. Howe- ver, the data are still very limited in order to assess adequately their real importance in human diet.

La recolección de plantas silvestres en la subsistencia mesolítica y neolítica datos arqueobotánicos del país vasco

The An Corran rockshelter, on the north-east coast of the Trotternish peninsula, Skye, contained a series of shell midden and other deposits with evidence for human occupation from Mesolithic and later periods. A rescue investigation of the site in the winter of 1993-94, immediately prior to anticipated total destruction by rock-blasting for roadworks, included the excavation of a trench dug down to bedrock. A total of 41 separate contexts were identi-fied. Of these, 31 were recent or later prehistoric, the upper levels containing a series of hearths of recent date and an Iron Age copper-alloy pin. The lowest 10 layers were identified initially as Mesolithic on the basis of bone tool and lithic typology, but a series of 18 radiocarbon dates indicates they contain the residues of subsequent prehistoric activity as well. These layers consisted of several distinct areas of midden, below which there were two, possibly three, horizons which probably, based on the presence of broad blade microliths, represent Early Mesolithic activity. The midden layers also contained some human bones radiocarbon-dated to the Neolithic period. The rockshelter was located below an outcrop of baked mudstone and near a source of chalcedonic silica. Both these lithic raw materials were widely used during the Mesolithic as far away as the island of Rum.

/pdf/an-corran-staffin-skye-a-rockshelter-with-mesolithic-and-pylllm9dbj.pdf

An Corran, Staffin, Skye: a rockshelter with Mesolithic and later occupation

The coastal factor in the Mesolithic settlement of north-west England

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The coastal factor in the Mesolithic settlement of north-west England