Abstract: This paper presents a general survey of the transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe, approached within the framework of the availability model and treated from the perspective of local (Mesolithic) hunting and gathering communities. We argue that in Eastern and Northern Europe, the transition to farming was a slow process, which occurred through the adoption of exogenous cultigens and domesticates by the local hunter-gatherer populations, who may have been already engaged in some form of husbandry of the local resources. Contact and exchange with the Neolithic and later Bronze Age of Central Europe had a profound and prolonged influence on the process of the adoption of farming in Eastern and Northern Europe. During the slow process of transition, mixed hunting-farming societies emerged, which could be regarded as having a characteristic social and economic organization of their own (i.e., neither “Mesolithic” nor “Neolithic”). In conclusion, we argue for continuity in population and in social and economic traditions from the hunter-gatherer past until recent antiquity and, in some areas, into the historical period.

Abstract: The subject of this essay is 5,000 years of the early postglacial prehistory of northern Europe, from approximately 10,000 until 5,000 years ago. This part of the past is of interest in its own right, but also in a much broader context. Current evidence suggests that rather large and sedentary groups of hunter­ gatherers were present in northern Europe during the early Holocene. This information leads to two important messages for this paper: 1. The European Mesolithic was a period of dynamic change and innovation, rather than a time of cultural degeneration as it has often been portrayed; and 2. large and sedentary groups of hunter-gatherers are likely more typical of late Pleis­ tocene and early Holocene adaptations than the small and mobile ones de­ scribed for much of the ethnographic and archaeological record. This chapter begins with a discussion of the climatic, environmental, and chronological background of the northern European Mesolithic. I then focus on recent archaeological evidence before returning to the two points made above. For purposes of this essay, northern Europe includes all or parts of those countries that share the coasts of the Baltic Sea and Kattegat, including northern Poland and Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the northwestern comer of the Soviet Union, and the Baltic Republics (Figure 1). This is an immense area; it is further from one end of Norway to the other than

Abstract: A cropmark complex of ring-ditches and square-plan ditches in the Vale of Clwyd, North Wales has been partially excavated. Mesolithic activity is represented predominantly by lithic waste in local cherts. A small bronze age cemetery, dated to between about 1660–1400 b.c., comprises a large and small ring-ditch and a ‘flat cemetery’ associated with Beaker inhumation burials, and by cremation burials, of which some were found with Food Vessel Urns. The larger ring-ditch was superseded by an undated rectangular enclosure with causeways at the centre of each side. An early medieval inhumation cemetery, with associated dates of about a.d. 510 and a.d. 860, was established to one side of the larger ring-ditch. A small proportion of the graves are enclosed by square-plan ditches, two of which had a causeway at the centre of the eastern side. Generalized parallels are drawn with other sites in eastern and northern Britain and within Wales itself.

Abstract: (1991). Mesolithic Eel-Fishing at Bjornsholm, Denmark, Spiced with Exotic Species. Journal of Danish Archaeology: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 105-118.

Abstract: Vidigal: the site and its nature The site of Vidigal, with an area of about 5000 sq. m, occupies a flat-topped ridge on the coastal platform of southwest Portugal, between Sines and Vilanova de Milfontes. This coastal strip, very rich in Mesolithic sites (including the type sites of the Mirian ‘culture’), is adjacent to stretches of the Sad0 and Mira valleys with dense clusters of Mesolithic sites (Arnaud 1986; 1987; 1989). The middens of the Muge and Magos are c. 140 km to the north. There are also sites in coastal southwest Portugal that have been labelled ‘Neolithic’ essentially because they contain ceramics (Tavares & Soares 1981; Tavares 1989; Arnaud 1982), early megalithic tombs in the interior of Alentejo (Kalb 1989), and early Neolithic cave sites in Estremadura and Ribatejo. Recent research, including radiometric dates (I4C and TL), makes this an excellent region in which to study the transition(s) between Mesolithic and Neolithic technologies and adaptations (e.g. Lubell & Jackes 1985; Lubell et al. 1989; Meiklejohn et al. 1986). As in Poland (Bogucki 1988), southwest Germany (Gregg 1988) and southeast France (Guilaine 1981), the distribution of ‘Mesolithic’ and Neolithic’ sites was a mosaic linked to local ecological variations during the ‘availability phase’ (Zvelebil & Rowley-Conwy 1986) of a complex process of change. Details of the complete surface collection and preliminary excavation of 13 metre-square test pits conducted at Vidigal in 1988 are given in Straus & Vierra (1989) and in Straus et aI. (1990). The central part of the site is a low but extensive, dense shell-midden of limpets, whelks and mussels, with trace quantities of barnacles, oysters, topshells and scallops, as well as numerous remains of shark andlor ray. The midden layer, generally 10-20 cm thick, probably accreted laterally during many human visits. The place is adjacent to and overlooks the lower course of the Queimado stream; at Vidigal, less than 2 km from the present shore, it was probably estuarine during the Flandrian transgression. At 45 m above present sea level, Vidigal dominates the coastal plain, about equidistant between the shore and the foot of the Cercal Mountains. The midden itself contains few mammalian remains and few lithics except unretouched quartzite flakes, which are concentrated there. On its peripheries there are more lithics flint and crystal quartz geometric microliths (= ‘armatures’larrowheads or barbs), unretouched bladelets and other debitage and cores -but very few or no faunal remains. At the western edge of the midden is an artificial pavement of local sandstone and schist slabs and beach cobbles. A bone collagen radiocarbon determination of 6640k90 b.p. (Ly-4695) obtained from this surface, must represent an early phase at the site. After abandonment of the pavement feature, midden materials were deposited over it, as the shell ‘dump’ spread westward. A second bone collagen radiocarbon determination of 6030+180 b.p. (GX-14557), from the midden directly above the dated part of the pavement,

Abstract: Settlements and Frontiers in Mesolithic and Early Agricultural Sites in South-Eastern Rajasthan. (BAR -S412, 1988)

Abstract: Revue et implications de 300 dates obtenues pour le Paleolithique final et le Mesolithique de Grande-Bretagne et d'Europe du Nord-Ouest

Abstract: Summary The excavation of the archaeological site at Nethermills Farm yielded Mesolithic material, including large quantities of carbonised wood and nut fragments, discussed in this paper. Their analysis indicates a pronounced domination of Quercus (oak). This probably means that wood was collected from local woodland in which oak was dominant. A similar pattern – in which wood use reflects local availability – has been seen at other Mesolithic sites and suggests that no resource management was practised at that time.

Abstract: The period of deglaciation from ca. 13,000 to ca. 9000 B.P. along the northern edge of the Cantabrian Cordillera and Pyrenees was characterized by marked climatic and environmental oscillations, culminating in the establishment of interglacial conditions. While along the Cantabrian coast, late Upper Paleolithic groups had long been developing diversified systems of adaptation, fully exploiting the wide range of food resources of that narrow but ecologically varied region (notably red deer and marine mollusks), Magdalenian hunters along the southern edge of the Aquitaine basin were becoming increasingly specialized in the hunting of one medium-size game species, reindeer. Thus, while the artifact industries and artistic traditions of the two adjacent regions along the forty-third parallel developed along similar lines in the Magdalenian and Azilian, and despite a common montane specialization in ibex hunting, the changes that came with the end of the Last Glacial affected the human groups of the two regions very differently, as reflected in the early Mesolithic records of Vasco-Cantabria and Gascony, respectively.

Abstract: The thesis raises questions concerning prehistoric conditions in a high mountain region in central Scandinavia; it focuses on the human use of stone and on hunting principally of reindeer. An analysis of how the stone material was utilized and an approach to how large mammals were hunted result in a synthesis describing one interpretation of how the vast landscape of a region in the central Scandinavian high mountains was used. With this major aim as a base questions were posed concerning the human use of stone resources and possible changes in this use. Preconditions for the occurrence of large mammals as game animals and for hunting are also highlighted. A general perspective is the long time period over which possible changes in the use of stone and hunting of big game, encompassing the Late Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and to a certain extent the Early Iron Age.Considering the manufacture of flaked stone tools, debitage in the form of flakes from a dwelling, constitute the base where procurement and technology are essential. The occupation of the dwelling covers a period from the Late Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. Possible changes in lithic use are discussed based on an analysis of debitage which includes testing variables reflecting various steps in the process of flaked stone tool manufacture. Also, the results are discussed from a methodological aspect; the classificatory aspect of analyzing large flake assemblages is implied. The result of the flake analysis indicates differences in the use of stone from the Late Mesolithic to the Bronze Age/Early Iron Age. These differences are interpreted in a three-part chronological division and as theoretically proceeding in a manufacturing process of five steps including acquisition, reduction through three steps and use of completed tools. A pattern, dividing the Bronze Age use of stone from that of the Neolithic and Late Mesolithic is discerned and discussed in terms of changes in procurement strategies and technology. Also, social organization is touched upon.When approaching the issue of hunting the character of data differ; archaeological and palaeo-environmental data together comprise the base for a discussion of possible changes. This is based on a theoretical model applied in a hypothetical research design. Archaeological categories of remains relevant in hunting contexts together with ethnographic and traditional hunting techniques are discussed. They constitute the base and illustrate possible variables in the testing of the hypothetical model. Changes in the Holocene climate are clear, just as changes in the archaeological record are observable. Together these circumstances indicate changes in the hunting process.The structural changes in economy and society that occur in central and north Scandinavia during stone-using periods are discernible in the region studied here.

Abstract: Summary. The area north of the Black Sea, from the Danube to the Caucasus, was a zone of interaction between farming populations and indigenous Mesolithic groups which acquired pottery and elements of stock-breeding. Recent research in Soviet Moldavia, at the western end of this area, has clarified the nature of contacts between farming groups of Balkan origin and local groups centred on the Dnestr and Bug.

Abstract: The results of an area-intensive surface collection survey are described and evidence for a coarse-grained response to the distribution of resources is presented. Surface collection surveys have occurred over many areas of southern England with attention focused especially on the neolithic landscape of the monument zone. The results of such surveys provide an indication of the social landscape within which monument building occurred. However, to fully appreciate human behaviour in an active and emergent landscape, the results of similar investigations from what appear passive landscapes must be available as well as evidence for human exploitation in earlier and later periods. The upper Meon valley survey represents one of only few attempts to redress that imbalance and to assess objectively the nature of occupation away from the monument zone throughout the prehistoric period. The results demonstrate an intensity of occupation equal to that in other parts of Wessex but confined, predominantly, to the mesolithic and earlier neolithic periods. The survey also provides a case-study in interpretation. The emphasis is less on places than on the space in which they occurred.

Abstract: The discovery, excavation and analysis of a shell midden are presented and discussed. The site provides evidence for exploitation of the sheltered coastal environment in the Inverness area during the mid fourth millennium be and suggests similarities with Later Mesolithic and Neolithic shell middens elsewhere in Scotland.

Abstract: Part 1 The evolution of plant exploitation - concepts and processes: an evolutionary continuum of people-plant interaction, D.R.Harris Darwinism and its role in the explanation of domestication, D.Rindos domestication and domiculture in northern Australia - a social perspective, A.K.Chase the domestication of environment, D.E.Yen. Part 2 Plant exploitation in non-agrarian contexts - the ethnographic witness: wild-grass seed harvesting in the Sahara and sub-Sahara of Africa, J.R.Harlan Australian Aboriginal seed grinding and its archaeological record - a case study from the Western Desert, S.Cane plant foods of hte Gidjingali - ethnographic and archaeological perspectives from northern Australia on tuber and seed exploitation, R.Jones and B.Meehan plant usage and management in southwest Australian Aboriginal societies, S.J.Hallam ethnoecological observations on wild and cultivated rice and yams in northeastern Thailand, J.C.White an example of intensive plant husbandry - the Kumeyaay of southern California, F.C.Shipek plant-food processing - implications for dietary quality, A.B.Stahl. Part 3 Plant exploitation in per-agrarian contexts - the archaeological evidence: plant exploitation at Grotta dell'Uzzo, Sicily - new evidence for the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic subsistence in southern Europe, L.Constantini late Palaeolithic plant foods from Wadi Kubbaniya in Upper Egypt - dietary diversity, infant weaning and seasonality in a riverine environment, G.C.Hillman plant-food economy during the Epipalaeolithic period at Tell Abu Hureyra, Syria - dietary diversity, seasonality and modes of exploitation, G.C.Hillman et al Mesolithic exploitation of wild plants in Sri Lanka - archaeobotanical study at the cave site of Beli-Lena, M.D.Kajale new evidence on plant exploitation and environment during the Hoabinhian (late Stone Age) from Ban Kao Caves, Thailand, K.Pyramarn the taming of the rain forests - a model for Late Pleistocene forest exploitation in New Guinea, L.Groube seed gathering in in land Australia - current evidence from seed-grinders on the antiquity of the ethnohistorical pattern of exploitation, M.A.Smith adaptation of prehistoric hunter-gatherers to the high Andes - the changing role of plant resources, D.M.Pearsall. Part 4 Agrarian plant exploitation - the domestication and diffusion of crops and crop assemblages: the tropical African cereals, J.R.Harlan factors responsible for the ennoblement of African yams - inferences from experiments in yam domestication, V.E.Chikwendu and C.E.A.Okezie domestication of the southwest Asian neolithic crop assemblage of cerials, pulses and flax - the evidence from living plants, D.Zohary origin and domestication of the southwest Asian grain legumes, G.Ladizinsky. (Part contents)

Abstract: When did a human presence reach Crete, largest of the Aegean islands, and invitingly joined to the mainland by intervening stepping-stones? Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, or only in the Neolithic, when the deep sequence of occupations under the site of the later palace at Knossos began. How many sailed to Crete? What did they bring with them?