Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Lithics basics 3. The Lower Paleolithic 4. The Middle Paleolithic 5. The Upper Paleolithic 6. The Epipaleolithic 7. The Neolithic 8. Conclusion.

Abstract: 1. Skeletal evidence for interpersonal violence in Neolithic Europe: an introduction 2. The placement of the Feathers: Violence among Sub-boreal foragers from Gotland, central Baltic Sea 3. Violence in the Stone Age from an Eastern Baltic perspective 4. Skeletal trauma and violence among the early farmers of the North European Plain: Evidence from Neolithic settlements of the Lengyel Culture in Kuyavia, North-Central Poland 5. The Neolithic massacre at Talheim - A pivotal find in conflict archaeology 6. The early Neolithic site Asparn/Schletz (Lower Austria): Anthropological evidence of interpersonal violence 7. Violence against the living, violence against the dead: Evidence of a crisis and mass cannibalism on the human remains from Herxheim, Germany 8. Violence in the Single Grave Culture of Northern Germany 9. Injured but special: On associations between skull defects and burial treatment in the Corded Ware Culture of Central Germany 10. Investigating cranial trauma in the German Wartberg Culture 11. Interpersonal violence in the Late Mesolithic and Middle Neolithic in the Netherlands 12. Neolithic violence in France: an overview 13. Skeletal evidence for interpersonal violence: beyond mortuary monuments in southern Britain 14. Evidence of trauma in Neolithic Greece 15. Prehistoric violence in Northern Spain: San Juan ante Portam Latinam 16. Evidence of traumatic skeletal injuries in the collective burial caves of the Nabao Valley, Central Portugal 17. Skeletal evidence of interpersonal violence from Portuguese Late Neolithic collective burials: an overview

Abstract: Pollen was analysed from a sediment sequence collected in the close vicinity of the Mesolithic settlement Tagerup, southern Sweden. Macroremains were also retrieved from numerous samples taken at the site of the archaeological excavations of Kongemose and Ertebolle settlement phases, 6700–6000 b.c. and 5500–4900 b.c. respectively. Plants and other organic remains were well preserved in the refuse layers from the settlements embedded in the gyttja. The pollen record includes no clear indications of human impact on the vegetation during the Mesolithic. The occurrence of charcoal particles and pollen of grass and herbs associated with nutrient-rich soils are contemporaneous with the Kongemose settlement. The Ertebolle settlement phase, although characterised by considerable dwelling activities less than a hundred metres from the pollen sampling site, is scarcely seen in the pollen data. Numerous finds of crushed dogwood stones from the Kongemose phase, often partly carbonised, suggest that these stones were used for the extraction of oil. Other plants found in the Kongemose refuse layers that may have been used are apples, cherries, raspberries, acorns and rowan-berries. Based on the abundance of hazelnut shells found at the studied site and in other studies of Mesolithic sites in southern Scandinavia it is proposed that these remains may testify to an important food supply rather than just use as a supplement to animal protein. It is also hypothesised that a regional decrease in hazel populations and thus hazelnut availability at the end of the Mesolithic may have motivated the adoption of Neolithic subsistence.

Abstract: The authors rewrite the character of Early Mesolithic settlement in Europe with their new research at one of its most famous sites. The picture of small mobile pioneering groups colonising new land is thrown into contention: far from being a small hunter-gatherer camp, Star Carr in 9000 cal BC extended for nearly 2ha and involved the construction of an estimated 30m of lakeside waterfront and at least one post-built house. With some justice, they suspect that the "small groups" of Early Mesolithic Europe may have their rationale in the small excavations of archaeologists

Abstract: The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in Europe is associated with demographic changes that may have shifted the human gene pool of the region as a result of an influx of Neolithic farmers from the Near East. However, the genetic composition of populations after the earliest Neolithic, when a diverse mosaic of societies that had been fully engaged in agriculture for some time appeared in central Europe, is poorly known. At this period during the Late Neolithic (ca. 2,8002,000 BC), regionally distinctive burial patterns associated with two different cultural groups emerge, Bell Beaker and Corded Ware, and may reflect differences in how these societies were organized. Ancient DNA analyses of human remains from the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker site of Kromsdorf, Germany showed distinct mitochondrial haplotypes for six individuals, which were classified under the haplogroups I1, K1, T1, U2, U5, and W5, and two males were identified as belonging to the Y haplogroup R1b. In contrast to other Late Neolithic societies in Europe emphasizing maintenance of biological relatedness in mortuary contexts, the diversity of maternal haplotypes evident at Kromsdorf suggests that burial practices of Bell Beaker communities operated outside of social norms based on shared maternal lineages. Furthermore, our data, along with those from previous studies, indicate that modern U5-lineages may have received little, if any, contribution from the Mesolithic or Neolithic mitochondrial gene pool. Am J Phys Anthropol 2012. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract: A review of selected Mesolithic blade and trapeze complex series in the north-western Mediterranean reinforces the hypothesis of a common use of pressure techniques for bladelet production during the seventh millennium cal B.C. This paper deals with the specificity and variability of these techniques and the consistency of the blade production methods. Mesolithic pressure technique seems to have been quickly diffused within the western Mediterranean basin, earlier than the spread of Early Neolithic communities in the same area. It then proceeded from a regional development, distinct from the Mesopotamian and Anatolian cores.

Abstract: With this book the contributors review funerary practices from the Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic in the Western Mediterranean, more specifically, in this first volume, on modern day Spain, Andorra, and Portugal. (A second volume will focus on the same periods in Southern France and the Italian Peninsula.) Contents: Preface. Funerary practices in the western Mediterranean from the Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic: the Iberian Peninsular (Juan Gibaja, Antonio Faustino Carvalho and Philippe Chambon); 1) Funerary practices in Cantabrian, Spain (9000-3000 cal BC) (Pablo Arias); 2) From pits to megaliths: Neolithic burials in the interior of Iberia (Manuel Rojo-Guerra and Rafael Garrido-Pena); 3) Funerary practices during the Early-Middle Neolithic in north-east Iberia (Juan Gibaja et al); 4) Mesolithic and Neolithic funerary practices in the central Mediterranean region of Spain (Oreto Garcia Puchol et al); 5) Funerary practices and demography from the Mesolithic to the Copper Age in southern Spain (Marta Diaz-Zorita et al); 6) Mortuary archaeology of the Muge shell middens (Mary Jackes and David Lubell); 7) Algar do Bom Santo: a Middle Neolithic necropolis in Portuguese Estremadura (Antonio Faustino Carvalho et al); 8) The Sado shell middens: anthropological and paleodietary depiction (Claudia Umbelino and Eugenia Cunha); 9) Ditches, pits and hypogea: new data and new problems in south Portugal Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic practices (Antonio Carlos Valera); 10) Early Neolithic funerary practices in Castelo Belinho's village (western Algarve, Portugal) (Mario Varela Gomes)

Abstract: Space competition effects are well-known in many microbiological and ecological systems. Here we analyze such an effect in human populations. The Neolithic transition (change from foraging to farming) was mainly the outcome of a demographic process that spread gradually throughout Europe from the Near East. In Northern Europe, archaeological data show a slowdown on the Neolithic rate of spread that can be related to a high indigenous (Mesolithic) population density hindering the advance as a result of the space competition between the two populations. We measure this slowdown from a database of 902 Early Neolithic sites and develop a time-delayed reaction-diffusion model with space competition between Neolithic and Mesolithic populations, to predict the observed speeds. The comparison of the predicted speed with the observations and with a previous non-delayed model show that both effects, the time delay effect due to the generation lag and the space competition between populations, are crucial in order to understand the observations.

Abstract: The An Corran rockshelter, on the north-east coast of the Trotternish peninsula, Skye, contained a series of shell midden and other deposits with evidence for human occupation from Mesolithic and later periods. A rescue investigation of the site in the winter of 1993-94, immediately prior to anticipated total destruction by rock-blasting for roadworks, included the excavation of a trench dug down to bedrock. A total of 41 separate contexts were identi-fied. Of these, 31 were recent or later prehistoric, the upper levels containing a series of hearths of recent date and an Iron Age copper-alloy pin. The lowest 10 layers were identified initially as Mesolithic on the basis of bone tool and lithic typology, but a series of 18 radiocarbon dates indicates they contain the residues of subsequent prehistoric activity as well. These layers consisted of several distinct areas of midden, below which there were two, possibly three, horizons which probably, based on the presence of broad blade microliths, represent Early Mesolithic activity. The midden layers also contained some human bones radiocarbon-dated to the Neolithic period. The rockshelter was located below an outcrop of baked mudstone and near a source of chalcedonic silica. Both these lithic raw materials were widely used during the Mesolithic as far away as the island of Rum.

Abstract: An analysis of the documents on the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic groups would seem to confirm that the participation of the former was decisive in the formation of the Neolithic. The influence of the East on the Neolithisation of the Iberian Peninsula is plainly essential, as all that was necessary to set up a production economy originated there, including population. However, the very characteristics of the documentation (geographical and geological location of the sites), radio-chronological dating (showing a speedy arrival of Neolithic elements on the coast and inland) or the Mesolithic organization of the territory into networks, also active in the Neolithic, make sense of the thesis of participation that we put forward.

Abstract: Two well-known archaeological sites, the peat bogs of Shigir and Gorbunovo (Middle Urals, Russia), have been radiocarbon dated (61 conventional and accelerator mass spectrometry [AMS] dates from various natural and artifact samples). For the first time, a detailed chronology of Early to Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic occupation for this region has been obtained, and a paleoenvironmental history reconstructed. Based on these results, we propose that the Mesolithic settlement of the Middle Urals region started in the early Holocene, at the same time as in central and eastern Europe. DOI: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i3–4.16124

Abstract: Archaeological investigations along the coastlines of Denmark and northern Germany have produced invaluable data concerning the Stone Age, and particularly our Mesolithic fishing, hunting and gathering ancestors. However, a number of different natural and human forces have partially or totally destroyed this important resource, particularly in other parts of North West Europe such as Britain and Ireland. What is more, further problems can be predicted as a consequence of climate change with possible rising sea levels and storm events. This paper considers the value of Mesolithic coastal archaeology, the threats posed to it, and the steps which are being taken to address these threats. The conclusion is that although research and policy is moving ahead, much more needs to be done in order to understand and preserve these sites before it is too late.

Abstract: A Late Palaeolithic amber figurine has been skilfully recovered and reassembled from a ploughed open site in northern Germany. Dated between 11 800 and 11 680 cal BC it occupies a key point between the Magdalenian and the Mesolithic. The authors show that the figurine represents a female elk which was probably carried on the top of a wooden staff. They argue for continuity of art but change of belief in this crucial transition period.

Abstract: This thesis aims to characterise the use of antler in the British Mesolithic, and to place this within the broader context of human and deer relations during the period. It uses traceological analysis to study worked antler from Mesolithic Britain, building up a picture of the ways in which the chaine operatoire for the treatment of antler artefacts varied across time and space during the period. This marks the first large-scale application of this method to material from the British archaeological record, resulting in the analysis of 516 pieces of worked antler. In doing so, it extends the current understanding of technological variation within the British Mesolithic further than the previous comparisons between Early Mesolithic sites in North Yorkshire and Final Mesolithic sites in Western Scotland, by including material from 39 sites across England, Scotland and Wales. New artefact types are defined and previously undocumented patterns of re-use and repair of antler materials are identified within specific archaeological contexts. Additionally, this thesis considers variations and consistencies within the treatment of antler as a material, in relation to the dynamic and changing relationship between people and deer during the period. This relationship has become the focus of academic discussion in recent years, following shifts in theoretical thinking within Mesolithic Studies. Several authors have used the treatment of deer remains to argue for variations in the perception of animals within the British Mesolithic, although these have been restricted to a limited number of archaeological sites. This thesis considers the analysis of antler technology within the context of a wider pattern of human/deer encounters and interactions, and draws out subtle differences in the relationships between people, red deer, roe deer and elk during the period.

Abstract: This chapter deals with the emergence and the development of the pressure knapping technique in Central Asia (republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan). The specific context of the processes of neolithization is particularly significant for understanding the development of pressure blade technology in Central Asia as well as the reasons linked to its adoption and application in different cultural entities. The additional information provided here enriches this discussion for the neighboring regions of Russia, the Caucasus, Iran, and Afghanistan. The technological study of the major lithic assemblages recovered from Upper Paleolithic to Chalcolithic contexts across dispersed parts of Central Asia points out significant results. Thus, the emergence of the use of the pressure knapping technique during the Early Holocene in this part of Asia was associated with the appearance of microblade technology and, to some extent, bladelet production. The pressure technique appeared in Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups that contrast sharply with the previous Paleolithic stone reduction traditions. Two concepts have been identified: the first one, called here the Yubetsu method, is closely related to the technical tradition from the Far East (Sibero-Sino-Mongolia area), and the second one linked to a bullet-shaped core and the more “classical” method, is most often associated with geometrical microliths. With the appearance of agropastoral Neolithic societies like the Jeitun culture in Southern Turkmenistan (7th–6th millennia B.C.), the pressure knapping technique was used for the production of regular blades employing the bullet-shaped core method. A more interesting and specific case in Central Asia is found among three societies involved in the process of neolithization. The Kel’teminar culture (Uzbekistan, 7th–4th millennia B.C.) illustrates the beginning of the settlement process; the subsistence strategies were marked by a focus not only on hunting and gathering but also with the appearance of domestic cattle. Its technical tradition came mainly from the local Mesolithic background. The lithic industry has evidence of several production systems (microblades, bladelets, and blades) employing at least two techniques: a very well-controlled indirect percussion and the bullet-shaped core method using a pressure technique. The Atbasar culture (Kazakhstan, 5th–4th millennia B.C.) developed from the local Mesolithic, retaining microblade production using the pressure knapping technique (bullet-shaped cores). The introduction of few regular blades (detached by indirect percussion or pressure knapping technique?) and new formal tools can be observed. The Hissar culture (Tajikistan, 7th–4th millennia B.C.) shows the exploitation of both domestic and wild animals, with a higher proportion of the latter, suggesting a short-distance form of mobile pastoralism. The lithic assemblage presents the continuation of the earlier Mesolithic tradition (pressure microblade technology according to the Yubetsu method) together with the introduction of new Neolithic components such as a blade production using the indirect percussion. During the Chalcolithic/Eneolithic period, pressure knapping tends to disappear gradually from Central Asia. Following the emergence of the first Bronze Age communities, it is seen only in the shaping process of bifacial tools and projectile points.

Abstract: This thesis examines the nature of Mesolithic activity at five spring sites in south-west England. The springs have unusual properties and the lithics associated with each site have been assessed in order to investigate whether they are indicative of unusual, or even ritualistic, behaviour related to the property of the spring. As well as lithics, some of the springs are associated with other types of material culture and in some cases features such as pits are also present. This thesis brings together the different classes of archaeological evidence and situates their study within the context of the spring and the wider landscape. Recently in Archaeology there has been an increasing interest in the significance of ‘natural places’, which has led to topographical features being seen as important, and sometimes even sacred, places in the landscape. By contrast, in Mesolithic studies, natural features such as springs are often predominantly viewed in a functional sense, as a source of potable water and a convenient focus for settlement. Occasionally however some sites, such as the Hot Spring, Bath one of the case studies presented here, have been suggested to be evidence of Mesolithic ritual behaviour. These polarised views usually arise from an analysis of lithic attributes and the contexts in which the lithics are found. The more unusual the context, and the better the quality of the artefact deposited into them, the more likely it will be equated with ‘ritual’ behaviour. The unusual nature of the five springs examined here: two hot springs at Bath Spa and three tufa depositing springs at Langley’s Lane, Somerset, Cherhill, Wiltshire and Blashenwell Dorset, allowed that premise to be questioned and the results have demonstrated that aspects of mundane and ritual behaviour are virtually indistinguishable from the lithic record alone. Yet whilst there is a variance in the treatment of materials at springs with similar properties there are also certain commonalities between them, which may suggest that shared beliefs underpinned Mesolithic cosmologies, at least in the south-west region. The springs of this study were features in what were dynamic Mesolithic landscapes and the findings suggest the practices that were carried out reflected and embodied that dynamism. Mesolithic activity at springs remains an understudied topic within British archaeology, despite the potential these sites offer to engage with theoretical concepts such as landscape, praxis, belief and cosmology. This study has attempted to redress this imbalance and reinforces the potential of springs to elicit information that will enrich current knowledge of Mesolithic lifescapes and landscapes.

Abstract: This paper is based on the 2009 Europa lecture which concentrated on the issues surrounding the Early Holocene colonisation of Ireland and placed it both in a broader European context as well as asking why the initial settlement of Ireland should take place so late. It also reconsidered the reasons why there was a significant change in technology within the Irish Mesolithic. This paper suggests that over-emphasis has been placed on the Irish ‘Early’–Later Mesolithic change which had been thought to take place at a very specific point in time. Instead it is suggested that changes began to take place soon after settlement began in Ireland and that many of the classic Mesolithic type fossils, most notably microliths, began to vanish, perhaps around or just after 9000 years cal bp. It seems preferable to redefine the chronology of the Irish Mesolithic into two main phases the EARLIER and LATER Mesolithic with an, as yet undefined, chronological boundary between 8800 and 8600 cal bp. At the same time it recognises that there are significant changes (facies) within each of the major phases, some of which could even be regional. It should also be noted that not all of the facies need necessarily be associated with a distinct range of obvious type fossils.

Abstract: Between 30.000 and 4.000 years cal. BP (last Upper Pleistocene and most part of the Holocene), a wide stratigraphic series was settled in the entrace of Nerja Cave. This series is characterized by the presence of important records of human activities along all its vertical area that constitute one of the broadest archaelogical records on the Western Mediterranenan zone on this age. These evidences represent the technological remains typical of various cultural assemblages that follow one another through the sequence (Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age) and appear together plentiful plant remains (thirty taxons of conifers and angiosperms), almost a hundred species of invertebrates (Gastropoda, Scaphopoda, Bivalvia, Cephalopoda, Crustacea, Echinoidea) and vertebrates (more than hundred species, among fishes, reptiles, birds and mammals (including pinnipedes) related to human activities in the Cave. The presence of two echinoids species [Paracentrotus lividus (Lamark, 1816) and Echinocyamus pusillus (Muller, 1776)] along the sequence stands out among the invertebrades, which stratigraphic distribution and archaeological meaning we are going to present in this work. Its stratigraphical distribution includes from the Neolithic to the Solutrean, with a significant presence in the Epipaleolithic and Magdalenian levels.The presence of echinoids in the deposit is related to the anthropic activity, already be in a intencionated way or of indirect form, across the digestive device of the captured fishes presents in the same levels in high proportions.