Abstract: Evidence for a relationship between hunting strategies and body size is examined for human skeletons dating to the European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Trends for reduced limb size and stature seem to be correlated with improvements in the types of weapons utilized and a shift from aggressive to more docile game. Although some of these observations fit the predictions of Brues concerning the spearman-archer model, it is suggested that selection for reduced metabolic demands is a more plausible explanation for decrease in body size from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic. [Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, hunting, body size] IN A PAPER APPEARING IN THIS JOURNAL over 20 years ago, Brues (1959) presented a model describing the relationship between body build and offensive weapons. Through time, Brues's model of the spearman and the archer has become a commonly accepted axiom in the anthropological literature, if one can label an axiom by the frequency and regularity of its citation in introductory textbooks. Yet, the spearman-archer model has never really been tested against paleontological or osteological data. There has been sporadic reference to "atlatl elbow" (Angel 1966; Ortner 1968) and to other morphological correlates of specific hunting patterns (see Brace and Montagu 1977:362), but the major features of Brues's hypothesis have never been subjected to data drawn from populations which are lineally related to each other, yet which follow different technological means in hunting pursuits. In this paper, I will present evidence drawn from European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic groups in an attempt to test the basic contentions of the Brues spearman and archer model.

Abstract: It has been postulated1,2 that in the southern Pennines above 350–400 m, burning of the vegetation during Mesolithic time prevented the growth of trees, and that this continued during Neolithic time, although it was suggested that some recolonization of forest took place when agriculture made it possible to diminish the impact of hunters on wild animal food resources and on these uplands. Here we present analogous evidence but come to a slightly different conclusion which may be due to regional differences in prehistoric settlement. Peat profiles such as we describe here are uncommon in the region and so the phenomena may have been spatially restricted.

Abstract: Excavations were conducted at La Riera to test hypotheses concerning variability among Upper Paleolithic/Mesolithic artifact assemblages and to define and begin to explain changing hunter-gatherer adaptations to the coastal region at the end of the Wurm and the beginning of the Holocene. The 36 strata contain assemblages that can be assigned to Aurignacian(?), Solutrean, Magdalenian, Azilian, and Asturian culture-stratigraphic units. However, there is considerable nontraditional variability and great similarity between certain "Solutrean" and "Lower Magdalenian" assemblages. Shifts in raw-material procurement patterns are noted, and the variable lithic-debris fractions reflect changing tool-manufacturing activities. All these indices suggest differing uses of the cave or fundamental alterations in settlement-subsistence systems and cast doubt on the stric validity of the classic "cultural" subdivision scheme for the Stone Age of western Europe. Palynological and sedimentological analyses trace a series of...

Abstract: The littoral, hinterland and forested ecosystems on the south‐east coast of India are characterized by surficial Stone Age occurrences of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. Coinciding with the Stone Age sites are the habitats of tribes like the Yanadi, Chenchu, Yerukula and Boya, which indicates that hunter‐gatherer ecosystems that were originally inhabited by Stone Age groups continue to support primitive groups, notwithstanding the fact that they are now depleted. As no archaeolozoological and palaeoethnobotanical evidence is available at these sites, it is suggested here that ethnographic analogy can with care be used to build predictive models for Stone Age subsistence behaviour.

Abstract: Central England has previously represented a blank area for mesolithic studies. This article endeavours to correct this with the publication of the microlithic component of three prolific surface assemblages from sites on the east Warwickshire plateau. The microliths, of later mesolithic type, are described and analysed in detail, and are shown to be noteworthy for the inclusion of large numbers of inverse basally retouched points. The assemblages are placed in their English context, and the significance of their distribution discussed.

Abstract: Palynological and stratigraphic analyses have been conducted at eight sites in two areas of the North York Moors upland, supported in one case by radiocarbon analysis. Attention has been concentrated upon peat deposits of pre-Flandrian III age, in order to elucidate environmental alteration associated with Mesolithic communities in the region. Phases of forest recession apparently caused by fire clearance of the vegetation have been identified at each of these sites, and these have been attributed to the activities of Mesolithic man. The ecological changes associated with these forest clearance events have been illustrated using relative and concentration pollen diagrams, many of which have been drawn using the computer program NEWPLOT devised by Dr. I. Shennan and have involved the use of statistical confidence limits to assist in interpretation of the pollen data. The results of these analyses have been assessed, together with examples of pre-ulmus decline forest recession in the region collated from previously published data. The landscape of the North York Moors during Flandrian I and II has been discussed in terras of its resource potential for human communities, and a number of palaeoenvironmental zones have been identified on this basis. The origin, character and distribution of Menolithic clearance activity in relation to these zones has been discussed, together with its ecological consequences. Finally the role of environmental alteration in Mesolithic economy and land-use in the region and its long-term effects upon the landscape have been considered.

Abstract: Three series of important radiocarbon dates are now available for key Romanian sites of the Middle Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic.' The samples were collected by the writer during his official one year visit there as Inter-Academy Exchange Scientist of the National Academy of Sciences and the Romanian Academy of Social and Political Sciences (Institute of Archaeology). Special thanks are here expressed to the director of the Institute, Dionisios Pipidi, and members Alexandru Paunescu, Maria Bitiri and Petre Roman who permitted removing and exporting the samples from Romania in 1977 and 1978.

Abstract: Early Man in Britain and Ireland: An Introduction to Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures. By Alex Morrison. Pp.209. (Croom Helm/St Martin's Press: 1980.) Hbk £12.95, $35; pbk £7.95.