Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses prehistoric developments in the American Midcontinent and in Brittany, Northwest France. In European prehistory, the boundary between hot and cold societies—those with history and those, supposedly, without, those that change and those that do not—is usually set between the Paleolithic–Mesolithic and the Neolithic, between gatherer–hunter and farmer (Renfrew 1974). The chapter discusses gatherer–hunter societies of the late Mesolithic-late Archaic, then the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic and from Archaic to Woodland when the Breton but not the American societies took to farming, and the social developments in the Neolithic and Woodland Adena–Hopewell. The overall aim is to advance the understanding of general processes of change and technological intensification in tribal societies.

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses affluent foragers of Mesolithic Southern Scandinavia. The Mesolithic of southern Scandinavia—Denmark, southern Sweden, and northern Germany—is an intriguing period for the investigation of the adaptations of prehistoric foragers. The retreat of Pleistocene ice opened broad expanses of northern Europe for human occupation, initially in a subarctic tundra that gradually warmed during the early Postglacial into a region of deep forests and plenteous coasts by 5,000 B.C. Within a period of roughly 7000 years, it is possible to trace an initial colonization by reindeer hunters through an elaboration of various foraging adaptations to the adoption of agriculture and animal husbandry. In addition, southern Scandinavia has witnessed a long and detailed history of archeological investigation that has produced an extraordinary body of information on both past cultures and environments. The abundant bogs, marine sediments, and lime-rich deposits of this area have insured exceptional preservation, and the wealth of bone, antler, and even wooden artifacts from the Scandinavian Mesolithic is virtually unparalleled. Today, southern Scandinavia is dominated by the sea.

Abstract: The limestone country in the Nandyal basin of Kurnool district has open‐air and cave occupations belonging to the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. During the time of Late Mesolithic occupation of the cave areas, Neolithic‐Chalcolithic village settlements geared to farming and pastoral economy sprang up in the Kunderu valley from c.2000 B.C. Ethno‐archaeological approach to the prehistory of this region with special reference to the evidence obtained from the Late Mesolithic occupation at MCG II rockshelter site and the Neolithic‐Chalcolithic village of Ramapuram helps to predict that the present pattern of adaptations to landscape ecology, and the exchange system between the hunter gatherers and village groups, have their beginnings in the prehistoric period of this region.

Abstract: (1985). Experiments with Danish Mesolithic Microblade Technology. Journal of Danish Archaeology: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 23-39.

Abstract: SUMMARY Cores for pollen and macrofossil analysis and radiocarbon dating were collected from a 6m deep deposit near the North Mains excavation area. Results are presented for the upper 3-4m which was mostly deposited between late Palaeolithic and late Neolithic times. During the Mesolithic the local landscape was covered by woodland containing a variety of deciduous trees and large shrubs (birch, oak, elm and hazel); no indication of disturbance was found in the pollen profile. The first indication of human activity is the presence of charcoal around the 100 cm depth above which cereal type pollen and a number of weed pollen types signal the arrival of Neolithic people. A radiocarbon date indicates that this happened around 5600 bp and the pollen diagram shows that it preceded the elm decline. This is one of only a few sites in Britain where pre-elm decline cereal type pollen has been recorded. At a depth of 35 cm there is a gap in the pollen pro file representing a period of at least 3000 years, starting at around 4000 bp. It is therefore probable that the core covers the period of ring ditch and henge construction but not the period of barrow construction.

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter provides an alternative explanation to mobility in the Mesolithic of Northwestern Europe. Although the early Mesolithic of northwestern Europe has often been cited as an illustration of the way of life of prehistoric hunter—gatherers, this is largely because of the quality of preservation in the area rather than a belief that the occupants had achieved any complex level of organization. In fact, this period has been seen by many as one of crisis or as a nadir in which population levels dropped and residual populations were forced to survive and adapt because of the development of the pine–birch forest. This adaptation is usually regarded as a shift to the hunting of a broader spectrum of big game. This shift, in turn, is compared, usually unfavorably, to the preceding more specialized reindeer-hunting economies. One purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that this attitude is an artifact of the differential survival of evidence from the past. The early Mesolithic is often seen as a period of rapid cultural and environmental changes caused by the expansion of forests onto the open steppe and tundra of northern Europe and the consequent movement of reindeer herds into northern Scandinavia. As subsistence was presumed to have been based almost exclusively on reindeer, it has often been suggested that the colonization of Norway and northern Sweden was a direct result of man having to follow the reindeer.

Abstract: The settlement of Station Leduc is located in the eastern part of Belgium, in a hilly region on the bank of the Ambleve river. The excavations conducted between 1980 and 1983 have revealed the remains of a curvilinear dwelling structure built with river pebbles. The distribution of artifacts and burned macrobotanical remains is not random; rather it is organized with respect to the position of two fireplaces in the dwelling structure. Flint artifacts recovered at the site permit the occupation to be correlated with a late phase of the local Mesolithic.

Abstract: This paper explores the potential of the economic-ecological method based on the exploitation of fish resources for Mesolithic site identification, as compared to the recently popular yet indecisive technological-typological method, to predict the existence of "Mesolithic-like" subsistence activities in Siberia during the Sartan-Holocene "transition" period. The article is an attempt to establish, or at least to propose, new criteria that can lead to a higher level of understanding of Mesolithic economies in subarctic and arctic regions. Also, decision-making processes that operate to achieve behavioral goals based on efficiency of human beings are suggested. The model, designed with respect to geographical regions identified as interbiotic zones, has the advantage of offering specific alternative hypotheses enabling the definition of both environmental properties and predicted human behavior. Key words: Mesolithic, Siberia, interbiotic zone

Abstract: The archaeology of Rombalds Moor, West Yorkshire, is reviewed and discussed. Vegetational information is provided by thirteen pollen diagrams (nine percentage diagrams and four influx diagrams) for seven sites on the moor. At the end of the Late-Devensian period Rombalds Moor was aspecies-rich grassland. Following the Post-glacial warming of the climate-there was a succession of trees arriving in the area, but true woodland was not established until c.8800 years BP. Dates are proposed for two early Mesolithic forest burnings, and late Mesolithic disturbance has been noted, particularly at the Alnus rise. The morphology of the Alnus rise differs in diagrams from different parts of the moor. Differences in diagrams from the same site, together with radiocarbon dating evidence, points to the presence of one or more hiatuses in the late Boreal/early Atlantic. At this site there is evidence that Pinus persisted long after the Alnus rise. There was a small amount of clearance, but no agriculture, in the Neolithic period. In the Bronze Age there was more extensive clearance, some pastoralism, and a limited amount of cereal cultivation in the east of the moor. Pollen analysis of a buried soil provides evidence that a supposed 'Bronze Age' cairn represents a burial, but the radiocarbon date is Iron Age. Major deforestation took place in the Iron Age when the population moved from the higher land into the valleys and there were significant increases in both pastoral and arable farming. Cultivation stopped and woodland regrew in some areas towards the end of the Roman period. There is evidence that removal of the woodland cover led to soil degeneration on the higher parts of the moor which prevented later regrowth of woodland. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries remaining woodland was cleared and agriculture increased, particularly pastoralism. Recent changes involve the decline of heather as a result of overgrazing.

Abstract: (1985). A Functional Study of Lithics from Vaenget Nord, a Mesolithic Site at Vedbaek, N.E. Sjaelland. Journal of Danish Archaeology: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 40-51.