The Mediterranean is one of the world's two earliest foci of maritime activity. Recent discoveries shed new light on the times and places at which such activity began, and on the reasons why it did so. Lower and Middle Palaeolithic data continue to provide inconclusive evidence. Maritime activity remained modest for much of the Upper Palaeolithic (in contrast to Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific), and was perhaps linked to relocations due to adverse environmental conditions. The break-through, in the form of a shift from the use of a littoral resource to the development of longer maritime routes, is attested on Cyprus and in the Aegean, and seems to have taken place during the harsh climate of the Younger Dryas. Subsequently, seafaring in the eastern sub-basins of the Mediterranean became associated with the expansion dynamics of Neolithic groups, and may have been transferred with farming to the centre and west, where prior signs of comparable activity are generally less evident.

The origins and early development of Mediterranean maritime activity

Recent excavations (2006–2009) at the Mesolithic-Neolithic site of Vlasac in the Danube Gorges region of the north-central Balkans have focused on a reevaluation of previous conclusions about site formation processes, stratigraphy, chronology, and the nature of occupation. Mostly Late Mesolithic remains had been encountered in the preserved portion of the site, but, for the first time, in a restricted zone of the excavated area, vertical stratification of burial and occupation features yielded evidence about the use of the site in the period that is contemporaneous with Phase I–II at Lepenski Vir, the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition phase in this region, ca. 6200–5900 cal b.c. Various strands of archaeological evidence show both continuities and discontinuities in Late Mesolithic forager life- and deathways at the start of the Neolithic in the central Balkans.

Late Mesolithic lifeways and deathways at Vlasac (Serbia)

Survey Archaeology in the Mediterranean World: Regional Traditions and Contributions to Long-Term History

This article reviews current developments in European regional studies. A brief history of settlement archaeology as practiced in Europe is followed by a discussion of new approaches to regional analysis and surface survey. I argue that recent, steady investments in the technology, methods, and theory of regional archaeological analysis and surface survey have stimulated advances in the study of settlement patterns and settlement pattern change through time in many parts of Europe. When innovative technologies (e.g., remote sensing, GPS, GIS), methods (e.g., geoarchaeology, “siteless” survey), and new theoretical frameworks (both processual and postprocessual) have been combined, breakthroughs in our understanding of European settlement have resulted. In the last half of the article, I describe some of these breakthroughs in a broad discussion of European settlement history, beginning with the earliest prehistory of Europe through the Middle Ages. Shifts in perspective are particularly apparent for phases of transition: from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic, Paleolithic to Mesolithic to Neolithic, and with the rise and expansion of states.

European Regional Studies: A Coming of Age?

This paper discusses why large areas of the central and northern Balkans lack evidence of Mesolithic settlement and what implications this holds for future research into the Neolithization of the region. A marked shift in site distribution patterns between Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic is interpreted as a response to changing environmental conditions and resource availability. It is suggested that some important questions of the pattern, processes and timing of the transition to farming across the Balkan Peninsula may only be answered through new archaeological surveys of the Lower Danube valley and exploration of submerged landscapes along the Black Sea, Aegean and Adriatic coasts.

/pdf/pre-neolithic-in-southeast-europe-a-bulgarian-perspective-cw4olhj7nq.pdf

‘Pre-Neolithic’ in Southeast Europe: a Bulgarian perspective

In the Balkans archaeologists until recently have neglected Pleistocene and early Holocene remains in open-air contexts in favor of excavations in caves. As a consequence, they have reconstructed patterns of settlement and land use that in many areas are misleading. The authors of this paper suggest that a systematic examination of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic open-air sites through intensive surface survey has the potential to transform entirely our understanding of early Balkan prehistory. We demonstrate this by presenting in detail the results of our own fieldwork in central Albania in the region of Mallakastra, in particular a description of surface archaeological investigations and test excavations at the site of Kryegjata B that have yielded Middle Palaeolithic, Early Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic finds.

The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Albania: Survey and Excavation at the Site of Kryegjata B (Fier District)

Little was known until recently about regional patterns of early prehistoric occupation in Albania, making it difficult to situate the Albanian record within existing, general models of early prehistoric landuse. An intensive regional survey, the Mallakastra Regional Archaeological Project (MRAP), carried out in the Fier region of central Albania from 1998-2003, gathered widespread evidence for human occupation during the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods, from the Myzeqe Plain to the Mallakastra hills. The Pleistocene and early Holocene landscape of Fier differed considerably from the present landscape, and at times the Adriatic shoreline was much farther inland than it is now. As a consequence, Palaeolithic and Mesolithic foragers were able to exploit coastal-wetland and estuarine environments that have been buried only recently by alluvial sediment as a result of river avulsion and soil erosion. The landscape studied by MRAP is only a fragment of the total landscape once exploited by early humans in this part of the Balkans, whose home range may have included much of soutwest Albania and parts of northwest Greece. Our reconstruction of early prehistoric landuse in central Albania, based on collection and mapping of the locations of 1593 lithic artifacts from a 35 sq km area, indicates patterns of logistical foraging that span the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic and match those modeled in other Mediterranean countries, such as Greece.

Early Prehistoric Landscape and Landuse in the Fier Region of Albania

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The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Albania: Survey and Excavation at the Site of Kryegjata B (Fier District)

Early Prehistoric Landscape and Landuse in the Fier Region of Albania