Abstract: This study addresses changes in health which were consequential to the Neolithic transition in the southern Levant, judged on the basis of the study of specific and nonspecific stress indicators, trauma, and degenerative joint disease in 200 Natufian (hunter-gatherer) skeletons (10,500-8300 BC) and 205 Neolithic (agricultural) skeletons (8300-5500 BC) from the southern Levant. The comparison of the health profiles of pre-Neolithic (Natufian) and Neolithic populations reveals a higher prevalence of lesions indicative of infectious diseases among the Neolithic population, and an overall reduction in the prevalence of skull trauma among males. No change over time was observed in the prevalence of degenerative joint disease. These results indicate that in the southern Levant the Neolithic transition did not simply lead to an overall deterioration in health but rather resulted in a complex health profile which was shaped by 1) an increase exposure to disease agents, 2) changes in diet, 3) population aggregation in larger and denser settlements, 4) changes in activity patterns and the division of labor, and possibly 5) a higher resistant immunological system and response capacity to environmental aggressions (mainly infections).

Abstract: Shortly after his retirement from a distinguished career in the Department of Archaeology at Edinburgh, the author gave the Rhind Lectures for 2009, bringing together his thoughts about the Neolithic revolution, and comparing Childe's ideas with today's. These lectures, summarised here, announced the modern vision to a wide audience. It is a reversal of the old: Epipalaeolithic people came together in the first large, permanent communities, to form extensive settlements which only later needed to be fed by farming.

Abstract: The emergence of Portugal's Muge Mesolithic, with its characteristic shell middens and human burials, is widely seen as a response to the formation of a highly diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecoto...

Abstract: A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs-NPP, macrocharcoal particles) of a small fen located in the Perafita valley (2240 m a.s.l, eastern Pyrenees, Andorra) was undertaken to trace prehistoric human activities related to woodland clearance and past land-uses at high altitudes. The results of this study constrained by 9 AMS radiocarbon measurements are combined with archaeological data and compared with similar research carried out at the same altitude in the adjacent Madriu valley (Andorra). The overall objectives of this article are, first, to formulate different chronological patterns and spatial land-use distribution at a micro-regional scale during prehistory and, second, to discuss different drivers of prehistoric occupation models in the eastern Pyrenean highlands. The palaeoecological study of the Planells de Perafita fen was performed at high temporal resolution, allowing us to focus on detailed prehistoric (mainly Mesolithic and Neolithic) and Bronze Age...

Abstract: Multiple isotopic systems (C, N, O, S, Sr, Pb) are applied to investigate diet and mobility amongst the Middle Neolithic populations at Schipluiden and Swifterbant (Netherlands). A review of carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of European Mesolithic and Neolithic populations shows a shift in diet from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, but also great variety in Neolithic diets, several of which incorporate fish. At Swifterbant (c. 4300–4000 BC) the population had a diet largely based on terrestrial and freshwater resources, despite proximity to tidal waters. Only one individual (of 10) showed evidence for migration. In contrast at Schipluiden (c. 3600–3400 BC) there were migrants who had a diet lower in marine resources than those without evidence for migration. The faunal spectrum and isotopic similarities with sites in the Iron Gates Gorge suggest that sturgeon may have been important. There is some evidence that migrants at Schipluiden were not accorded the formal burial given to locally born pe...

Abstract: Two previously proposed models relating the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition to environmental change in north-west Europe are critically re-examined in the light of accumulating palaeoenvironmental data, and a realistic appraisal of spatial and temporal resolution. The first deals with declining marine productivity in the western Baltic, and the other with a proposed shift to drier, more continental conditions across north-west Europe. Both models are found to be unsatisfactory, although the case for southern Scandinavia seems to hold greater potential, at least for this region. Problems arise in the spatial scale over which climate change models are intended to apply, and over poor chronological resolution. Understanding the extent and nature of climate change at the relevant period, c. 6000/5800 cal. BP, is far from straightforward, as is the chain of causality between this and the adoption of mixed farming as a way of life.

Abstract: Recent marine and lake core studies in the Western Mediterranean Basin and Iberia have changed the traditional perception of Holocene climate change. Particularly important in this region, the 8,200 cal BP event is marked by colder and more arid conditions. During this episode, we identify a pattern of abandonment episodes at five Late Mesolithic sites. We suggest that such desertion episodes are correlated with adjustments in the logistic mobility system undertaken in the context of broader structural changes in regional settlement organization.

Abstract: In the last 20 years several new peat bog sites have been detected in the Upper Volga area. The article presents a first series of AMS-dates for the Stanovoje 4 site. They assign the early Butovo Culture to the Preboreal and the middle Butovo Culture to the Boreal. In the second part of the article some new evidence for microblade technology and composite tools in the late Palaeolithic/early Butovo Culture is discussed. It is well possible that the introduction of microblade technology and slotted bone tools in the late Boreal/early Atlantic period in the western Baltic was stimulated by contacts to eastern hunter-gatherers. Zusammenfassung In den letzten 20 Jahren wurden im oberen Wolgagebiet zahlreiche neue steinzeitliche Feuchtbodenplätze entdeckt. Der Artikel behandelt eine erste Serie von AMS-Datierungen für den mehrphasigen mesolithischen Fundplatz Stanovoje 4. Die Daten stellen die Schicht der frühen Butovo-Kultur in das Präboreal und die Schicht der mittleren Butovo-Kultur in das Boreal. Stanavoje 4 kann damit als Referenzfundplatz für die frühholozäne Kulturentwicklung im oberen Wolgagebiet gelten. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit verdient das Auftreten von Mikroklingen und Kompositgeräten wie Knochendolchen mit Flinteinsätzen in der frühen Butovo-Kultur, die im Spätpaläolithikum der Region ihre Vorläufer finden. Die Autoren diskutieren die Verbreitung und weitere Entwicklung dieser Innovation. Es ist gut möglich, dass das Aufkommen von Mikroklingen und Flintschneidendolchen im Ostseegebiet im ausgehenden Boreal/frühen Atlantikum auf einen Technologietransfer aus dem östlichen Europa zurückgeht.

Abstract: One of the most common debates surrounding the Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods in northern Spain focuses on the scarcity of lithic and osseous technologies identified in large shell midden contexts. Currently, several hypotheses have been proposed that attribute this phenomenon to differences in site spatial organization, increases in perishable material use, or changes in subsistence strategies. However, recently shell tools have been identified in the early Neolithic levels at Santimamine cave located in the Basque Country of northern Spain. These artifacts are the first evidence of shell tools to be identified in Northern Spain in an early Neolithic shell midden context. This paper proposes the hypothesis that shell tools were being used in subsistence activities. To test this hypothesis, the authors developed an experimental programme using different types of mollusc shells to examine evidence of functional use on wood, dry/fresh animal skin and non-woody plants. The experimental results were then used to examine the patterns of use on the seven shell tools from Santimamine. The results of the comparisons indicate that the seven shell tools have similar use patterns as the experimental shells. This evidence supports the proposed hypothesis that shell tools may have been used frequently in shell midden contexts during the Mesolithic and early Neolithic for the working of wood, plants or animal skin.

Abstract: The new AMS dates from Myrne (Northwestern Pontic Region), Laspi 7 (Crimea) and Igren' 8 (Dnieper Rapids Regions) show taht all these Mesolithic sities were inhabited during the second half of the Boreal period. These results contribute to the understanding of the chronology of the Mesolithic settlement of the Ukraine, and the orgin and spread of the blade and trapeze assemblages in southeast Europe. Although the new dates do nt help us clarify the sequence of the Preboreal and Early Atlantic archaeology in the abode regions, they nevertheless greatly improve our knowiedge of the relationships between the Grebenyky and Kukrek cultures, wichich, acordind to the nes 14C dates from Myrne, seen to have coexisted, at least at this site.

Abstract: River valleys have always been attractive places for human occupation. The history of Mesolithic and Neolithic floodplain occupation is linked with archives of fluvial evolution, in particular the intricate relationships between palaeo-hydrological regimes, ecological development and sedimentary environments. This paper describes floodplain evolution in the Russian forest lowland around Moscow since the last deglaciation. Although there is an obvious climatic driving force for the initial fluvial incision at the end of the last glacial, there are many arguments pointing to complex intrinsic evolution involving successive pedogenesis, floodplain accumulation, flooding and fluvial incision from the beginning of the Holocene towards recent times. Increasing wetness during the early and middle Holocene forced people to move from the lowest parts of the valley towards its edges until ultimately, during the most severe flooding episode (at around 2600 years BP), they had to abandon the valley altogether.

Abstract: Excavations were carried out intermittently between 1982 and 2005, by various excavators, in advance of quarrying activity at Upper Largie, Kilmartin Glen, Argyll & Bute. They revealed abundant evidence of prehistoric activity, dating from the Mesolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, on a fluvioglacial terrace overlooking the rest of the Glen, although some evidence was doubtless destroyed without record during a period of unmonitored quarrying. Several undated features were also discovered. Mesolithic activity is represented by four pits, probably representing a temporary camp; this is the first evidence for Mesolithic activity in the Glen. Activity of definite and presumed Neolithic date includes the construction, and partial burning, of a post-defined cursus. Copper Age activity is marked by an early Beaker grave which matches counterparts in the Netherlands in both design and contents, and raises the question of the origin of its occupant. The terrace was used again as a place of burial during the Early Bronze Age, between the 22nd and the 18th century, and the graves include one, adjacent to the early Beaker grave, containing a unique footed Food Vessel combining Irish and Yorkshire Food Vessel features. At some point/s during the first half of the 2nd millennium bc – the oakbased dates may suffer from ‘old wood’ effect – three monuments were constructed on the terrace: a pit, surrounded by pits or posts, similar in design to the early Beaker grave; a timber circle; and a post row. The latest datable activity consists of a grave, containing cremated bone in a Bucket Urn, the bone being dated to 1410–1210 cal bc; this may well be contemporary with an assemblage of pottery from a colluvium spread. The relationship between this activity and contemporary activities elsewhere in the Glen is discussed.

Abstract: Background: The site of Grotta d'Oriente, Island of Favignana, Sicily has yielded the complete skeleton of an adult female (OB) dated to the Mesolithic age. The cranial morphometry of this individual can provide us with some useful information about the peopling of Sicily in the Early Holocene period.Aim: Morphological affinities of OB and other Sicilian Mesolithic specimens were assessed to verify hypotheses concerning the early peopling of Sicily.Subjects and methods: Craniofacial metric data were employed in a comparative analysis with European Upper Palaeolithic (UP), Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Copper/Bronze age samples, and contemporary Italians. Both a model-free and a model-bound approach were used not only to calculate craniometric distances, but also to assess the role played by gene flow and drift to produce the resulting pattern of variations and relationships.Results: A Sicilian Mesolithic (SM) sample, including OB, resulted morphologically very close to an Italian Late UP comparative ...

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to make the first comprehensive survey of inland sites with oblique points in the northernmost parts of Fennoscandia. The chronological and technological relation of th ...

Abstract: The last throes of the Ice Age finished 11,500 years ago. The ameliorating climate was exploited by opportunistic people who took advantage of the rich resources exposed as the ice retreated. These pioneers were the Mesolithic peoples, who were to become the building blocks of the British, yet relatively little is known about them as they have been largely sidelined in preference to the artefact-rich phases of humanity which followed.ijna_260 195..234

Abstract: During the 7th millennium cal BC, Mesolithic assemblages record a major change throughout the entire European continent. This change took place in a very rapid manner. The aim of this paper is to determine possible origins of this phenomenon and to define the chronological stages of its spread. Critical examination of the radiocarbon dates and the sites make an African origin of this phenomenon likely, which subsequently diffuses very rapidly across the entire Western Mediterranean Basin before expanding across the whole of Western Europe. Equally, we are also trying to understand its proper nature: introduction of a new technical concept or migration of culturally distinct human groups?

Abstract: The site of Angel 2 is a small rockshelter prehistoric occupation in the vicinity of the Arenal de Fonseca site, next to the river Guadalope in the Teruel area of El Maestrazgo. Our research team had previously worked there for several campaigns in the early 2000s, finding an archaeological sequence based in two main levels, 2a (Mesolithic with geometric microliths) and 2b (Mesolithic with macrolithic pieces, belonging to the 9 th millennium BP). During the 2009 field works we have revelled in the south area of the site a new, more modern level, which can be dated during the Neolithic and has delivered some double-bevelled microliths and a small quantity of pottery.

Abstract: Blade/bladelet technology has been described as a highly efficient manner by which to produce stone tools, both tool blanks and finished forms. It was practiced during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (or Epipaleolithic) over vast portions of Europe, Asia, and Africa and it has also been ascribed to the Paleoindian Period for both Pre-Clovis and Clovis assemblages. However, the authors believe that in North America blade technology was relatively rare when compared to Old World settings and almost absent in some areas such as northeastern North America. Eastern Clovis lithic reduction systems supported a high degree of mobility, extremely low population densities, and an adaptation to a highly variable and changing Allerod and Younger Dryas environment. At roughly the same time, Old World Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic peoples used relatively structured and standardized blade/bladelet manufacturing systems that best suited higher population densities with lower levels of mobility. This p...