Abstract: Man and Sea in the Mesolithic: Coastal Settlement above and below Present Sea Level. Anders Fischer. ed. Oxbow Monograph, 53. Oakville, CT. David Brown Book Company, 1995. 440 pp.

Abstract: The exploitation of large mammals, particularly large herbivores, has dominated perceptions of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic subsistence behaviour in north-western Europe. This paper critically reviews the evidence for the exploitation of a complementary resource which has received little attention within the archaeological literature — carnivores and other fur-bearing mammals. Evidence for exploitation of individual species is described and discussed. A model is then developed to explain the apparent expansion of the subsistence base to include a wide range of fur-bearing mammals during the Lateglacial and Mesolithic. This paper concludes by arguing that although the use of carnivore meat and pelts cannot be viewed as a dominant trend in European hunter-gatherer subsistence practices, their contribution to hunter-gatherer economies cannot be ignored.

Abstract: The aim of this work is to explore the changing character and social roles of stone tools of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Britain. As well as contributing to current theoretical debate about the interpretation of material culture, this study provides a context in which to consider some of the major horizons of change in British pre-history. From stone axe quarries to the final ceremonial burial or breakage of tools at ritual monuments, Edmonds examines the evidence both regionally and chronologically. He looks at modifications in the form of tools and the methods used to produce them, taking into consideration the changing material and social conditions under which tools were produced, acquired, used and deposited. The result is the delineation of a prehistoric sequence in Britain, from the end of the Mesolithic era and the transition to Neolithic.

Abstract: The Mesolithic — as the ‘time in between’ — raises issues of definition, the more so as chronology is refined and the abruptness of environmental change at the end of the glaciation becomes clearer. This clarification of an unusual regional sequence is an instance.

Abstract: The Mesolithic in western Europe has been characterized as a period of archery hunting (Rozoy 1989). Stone tool assemblages are frequently dominated by microliths and it has been widely assumed that these microliths formed the tips and barbs of arrows (Mellars 1976; Myers 1989; Zvelebil 1986). There is undeniably some contextual evidence to support this interpretation, but other functional possibilities cannot be discounted. David Clarke (1976), for instance, discussed the potential for microliths to be used as components of plant processing tools, while Dumont (1988) noted a number of alternative microlith functions in a microwear study of material from Mount Sandal in northern Ireland. During the course of research on upland Mesolithic assemblages in southwest Scotland excavated by Tom Affleck, one of the authors inferred a range of functions other than projectile use from wear traces on microliths (Finlayson 1989). This was of particular interest, as conventional wisdom generally divides British Mesolithic sites into upland, microlith rich, hunting camps and lowland, microlith poor, winter residential sites (Mellars 1976). Similarly, it has been assumed that if microliths represent projectile points, they would have had a high degree of visibility and therefore emblematic status. Building on these assumptions, detailed social and economic reconstructions have been proposed by authors such as Myers (1987, 1989), Jacobi (1987) and Zvelebil (1986).

Abstract: The Early Iron Age enclosures and associated sites on Sutton Common on the western edge of the Humberhead Levels contain an exceptional variety of archaeological data of importance not only to the region but for the study of later prehistory in the British Isles. Few other later prehistoric British sites outside the East Anglian fens and the Somerset Levels have thus far produced the quantity and quality of organically preserved archaeological materials that have been found, despite the small scale of the investigations to date. The excavations have provided an opportunity to integrate a variety of environmental analyses, of wood, pollen, beetles, waterlogged and carbonised plant remains, and of soil micromorphology, to address archaeological questions about the character, use, and environment of this Early Iron Age marsh fort. The site is comprised of a timber palisaded enclosure and a succeeding multivallate enclosure linked to a smaller enclosure by a timber alignment across a palaeochannel, with associated finds ranging in date from the Middle Bronze Age to the Roman and medieval periods. Among the four adjacent archaeological sites is an Early Mesolithic occupation site, also with organic preservation, and there is a Late Neolithic site beneath the large enclosure. Desiccation throughout the common is leading to the damage and loss of wooden and organic remains. It is hoped that the publication of these results, of investigations between 1987 and 1993, will lead to a fuller investigation taking place.

Abstract: Introduction. 1: The Peopling of Europe. 2: The Upper Paleolithic Revolution. 3: The Mesolithic Age. 4: The First Farmers. 5: The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe. 6: The Palace Civilizations of Minoan Crete. 7: The Emergence of Elites. 8: The Collapse of Aegean Civilization. 9: Reformation in Barbarian Europe. 10: Iron Age Societies. 11: Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians. 12: The Impact of Rome. 13: Barbarian Europe. Further Reading. Chronological Tables. Acknowledgement of Sources. Index

Abstract: Pollen revealing human influence on the vegetation cover have been systematically sought out in pollen records from the Jura range. These anthropogenic indicators are: cereals, Plantago lanceolata and major/media, Artemisia, Rumex, Chenopodiaceae, Urticaceae, and variations of some shrubs and trees pollen like Ulmus, Corylus and Juniperus. The first cereals pollen evidence are dated to about 5800 cal. BC, but in only one site and with a few other anthropogenic indicators. Consequently, this first phase should be confirmed on other sites. Then, three phases are demonstrated: around 5500 cal. BC, between 5100 and 4500-4400 cal. BC (with a maximum around 4900 cal. BC, exactly at the older-younger Atlantic transition), and the last from 4300 cal. BC. The archaeological research carried out within the Jura range shows classically that the early Neolithic is influenced by two different cultures: the Linear Bandkeramik coming from the alsacian plain and a Mediterranean tradition from the Saone-Rhone valleys. In the «Trouee de Belfort», a region located at low altitude, the Mesolithic communities are deeply affected by the neolithic process from mid Vith millenium. In spite of a much higher altitude, Neolithic influence is perceived in the Swiss Jura at an altitude of 1100 m as soon as the early Vth millenium The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition can be considered complete at an altitude between 700-1000 m from around 4000 cal. B.C. The comparison of the lake level fluctuations in the Jura and subalpine ranges with the recessions or the advances of the glaciers and timberline in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, together with the percentage of C in the atmosphere, made it possible to establish that the lakes fluctuations reflect climatic oscillations following variations in the solar activity (Magny, 1995). Comparison of the lake fluctuations with the pollen evidences of human activity revealed on the Jura range shows that the phases of cultivation seem to be connected with the lakes regressions. This correlation raises once more the question of climate as a determinant factor in the advent of the first farmers in Western Europe, and, more generally, the question of the role of the climatic influence in the settlement of primitive cultivators communities in regions where the climatic conditions limited the development of already precarious agrosystems. Moreover, the possible impact of socio-economic and demographic events, especially from 4300 cal. BC, has to be considered in the successes and failures of the neolithic process.

Abstract: This report describes a number of pits and a linear feature close to the scheduled cropmark site at Farrochie. The remains of a shallow curvilinear ditch and eight pits were recovered in one area which produced evidence for possible Mesolithic and Neolithic activity. In another trench a number of truncated pits with no associated artefacts were recorded. There are notes on: `The chipped stone' by B Finlayson (20); `Palaeoenvironmental results' by C Clarke (20--1); and `The Neolithic pottery sherds' by T G Cowie (22--4).

Abstract: Four handaxe-like tools from Denmark (Faeno, Villestrup, Karskov Klint, Skellerup) and their surfacemodifications are described. In the authors' opinion, only one of these tools probably dates from the Middle Palaeolithic: the Faeno handaxe. The other implements are thought to be preforms of bifacial tools dating from the Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age. One blade was found in a sand quarry near Seest, Jutland. It must derive from gravelly water-laid deposits, presumably meltwater deposits, because it is slightly rounded. Therefore it most probably dates from the Middle Palaeolithic . Several other sites in Denmark have produced flint material ascribed to the Early or Middle Palaeolithic, e.g. Vejstrup Skov and Ejby Klint. We believe that these do not necessarily date from the Palaeolithic. At these and similar localities we may in fact be dealing with atelier -sites dating from much later periods: Mesolithic, Neolithic, or Early Bronze Age. It is argued that for dating any 'primitive-looking' flint artefacts to the Palaeolithic, when found outside astratigraphic context, features independent of typology should be used. Surface modifications on the flints, if studied in relation to the geological context, may provide such independent arguments.

Abstract: (1997). The Environmental Impact of Later Mesolithic Cultures. By I. G. Simmons. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 154, No. 1, pp. 310-311.

Abstract: A study of the most northerly communities in the Mesolithic, those largely dependant on the hunting of Reindeer in the tundra and their adaptation to a forest environment. The study examines their economy, the cycles of the year, settlements, social groupings, hunting patterns and migrations. Includes study of the relative chronology of sites, ethnographic parallels and lithic analysis.

Abstract: (1997). The debate on the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the western Baltic: a central European perspective. Journal of Danish Archaeology: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 171-178.

Abstract: The author shows the cultural evolution in the rock-shelter of Aizpea, located in the Southern slope of the Pyrenees. The stratigraphic sequence at Aizpea covers an interval of times extending from 7790 to 6370 BP. The archaeological materials found there let us place this stage in the geometric facies of the late Mesolithic. The internal evolution in this stage presents three horizons ; the most recent already incorporates some distinctive features of the Neolithic (pottery). The subsistence activities of the prehistoric occupants of Aizpea were based on ungulate huntig, river fishing and vegetable gathering; neither plants or animals had yet been domesticated. The sequence from Aizpea corresponds with the evolutive pattern already well defined in the Ebro Basin and, at the same time, has some resemblance (due to its geographical location) with continental archaeological elements found north of the Pyrenees.

Abstract: Renewed archaeological and osteological investigations were carried out on several inventories of human skeletal remains from the Upper Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic which have been seen in connection with cannibalistic activities. The analysis and interpretation were based on information from the disciplines of archaeology, physical anthropology, forensic medicine, taphonomy and ethnology. On the Upper Palaeolithic inventories partial manipulations could be seen in form of cut marks. In the case of the skeletal remains of the Brillenhohle it was possible to prove that several human bodies had been disarticulated and defleshed immediately after death. This complex treatment resulted in a secondary deposition of small skeletal elements and fragments around a fireplace. This observation is supported by other published examples. There is also evidence of secondary burial practice in the Mesolithic. However, no traces of manipulation can be proved from the available examples. Secondary depositing of human skeletal remains was identified from the Neolithic, in particular from the Linear Pottery Culture and the Upper Neolithic, that is the sites of Jungfernhohle near Tiefenellern, Wiesbaden-Erbenheim and the Hohlenstein-Stadel; no traces of manipulation could be noticed on these remains. It seems that the skeletal remains were selected and finally deposited after the decomposition of the soft tissues.

Abstract: Extensive exploration in the Baripada sadar, Bisoi, Rairangpur and Karanjia Tehsils, spanning two seasons in 1994 and 1995, resulted in the discovery of 4 lower paleolithic sites and 9 Mesolithic sites in the Mayurbhanj district, Orissa. Many of these sites are primary in nature and have preserved habitational deposits. Handaxes and choppers made of quartzite are the main components of the lower palaeolithic industry. In Mesolithic sites, in addition to microlithic artifacts, the most noteworthy feature of the assamblage is the common occurrence of heavy-duty implements, the raw materials selected for these are different from those used for manufacturing microliths. A summary effort is being made by the authors at integrating and interpreting the data recovered from the sites.

Abstract: The morphological regionalization of European Mesolithic populations was studied by discriminant analysis. Samples from four localities were compared employing craniometric variables. The general conclusion was that there is evidence for regionalization in the Late mesolithic in Europe, and a clinical pattern of variation was not detected. These results are in agreement with archaeological reconstructions of the population structure in the Late Mesolithic Europe.

Abstract: SUMMARY Metric variables of the dentition ofthe Sapnish mesolithic si te olLa Oliva (Valencia) ha ve been measured and compared with other prehistoric populations The variables analized allow the characterization of human population migrations during the Neolithic in Europe by phylogenetic tree analysis From the study done, the population from La Oliva shows affmities with the ancestral populations in Europe, clearly differing from its contemporaneous mesolithic populations and also from the more recent Neolithic groups These Neolithic migrants might ha ve substituted the ancestral stock without admixtire The same results ha ve been abotained by analyzing metric variables from the skhul

Abstract: On the basis of the data acquired in the last ten years, it can now be confirmed that, in some Neolithic localities in the Po and Friuli plains, the Neolithic in Northern Italy took root rapidly with the contemporary introduction of naked and hulled cereals (Hordeum vulgare/distichum, Triticum dicoccum, Tr. monococcum, Tr. aestivum/durum) and various species of pulses (Pisum sp., Lens culinaris, Vicia sp.lLathy­ rus sp., Vicia cfr. ervilia, Vicia cfr. faba). The forest development, which was initially quite homogeneous and compact, has progressively changed as a consequence to the intensive anthrophic activity. Only further re­ search can confirm how real the differences really are between the various settlements and in which way they are tied to the cultural differences of the various Neolithic groups and to the progressive passages from Mesolithic to Neolithic traditions.

Abstract: The European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic have produced numerous series of projectile points that are highly variable in both morphology and raw material The function of these objects has been suggested by ethnographic comparisons; archaeological context of certain discoveries; study of fracture patterns; and experimental reconstructions These armatures indicate extremely elaborate and diverse hafting techniques Unfortunately, with the exception of a few Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic examples that have survived in the special preservational circumstances offered by wet environments, the shafts to which the projectile points were attached no longer exist However, the morphometry of most of the points suggests, beginning at least with the Gravettian, attachment to relatively light shafts such as those that are propelled with the aid of a spearthrower or a bow